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What 



Christians Believe, 



MILES GAYLORD BULLOCK, Ph. D„ 

PASTOR EAST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
OSWEGO, N. Y. 



'.V 



SYRACUSE, N 
Thos. W. Durston & Co, 
1879. 




3* 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by 

M. G. Bullock, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 028386 



SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 
Truair, Smith & Bruce, Printers and Binders. 

1879. 



Contents. 



PAGE. 



Sermon I. 

The Roman Catholic Church 7 

Sermon II. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church 35 

Sermon III. 

The Presbyterian Church 61 

Sermon IV. 

The Baptist Church 83 

Sermon V. 

The Congregational Church. 109 

Sermon VI. 

The Lutheran Church 137 

Sermon VII. 

The Universalist. Church 161 

Sermon VIII. 

The Methodist Church 185 



EXPLANATORY. 



The sermons contained in this little book, were 
delivered to the congregation of the East Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Oswego, N. Y., during the fall 
and winter of 1878-9. They are now sent forth, 
possibly to a larger audience, with the prayerful 
hope that they may aid the reader to know and 
appreciate whatsoever things are true, and lovely, 
and of good report in the churches named, and may 
thus promote that " charity which is the bo?id of 
perfectness" 



I. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 



SERMON I. 

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell 
shall ?iot prevail against it. And I will give unto thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou 
shaltbindon earth shall be bound in heaven ; and what- 
soever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven, 
St. Matt, xvi: 18-19. 

Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; 
and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. St. 
John, xx : 23. 

Bigotry is the child of Ignorance. The bigot by 
his prejudices confesses lack of knowledge of the 
creed which he bitterly opposes. It is easy to con- 
struct a man of straw, and then pelt it with stones. 
Do you remember that when a child, and going along 
a strange lonely road, your imagination made each 
stump a blood-thirsty villain, in wait for the helpless 
passer-by, and every gleam from a phosphorescent 
rotting stick, an eye of goblin fierce ? So do many 
good people look with frightened imagination upon 
the doctrines of all Churches except their own. 
Without doubt a large class of Protestants are 



10 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

greatly alarmed when they reflect upon the progress 
of the Roman Catholic Church. The daylight of 
unprejudiced thought may chase away the frightful 
apparitions. 

The series of sermons, of which this is the first, 
is given in the hope that they will increase in you 
the abounding grace of an intelligent christian 
charity. This particular discourse is not to make 
Romanists of you, but that you may know something 
of the creed and polity of a Church in whose minis- 
trations so many millions of souls find comfort, and 
in the use of whose sacraments they expect to enter 
heaven. 

The sermon is not designed to be controversial, 
because the day has gone by for religious controversy 
to avail in advancing the kingdom of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Roman Catholics cannot convert Protestants to 
what they deem the only true faith, by means of the 
Inquisition, the fagot and the rack ; nor will Protest- 
ants bring Roman Catholics to embrace the doctrines 
taught by Luther, Wesley and Edwards, through 
invective and the cruel words of sanctified abuse. 
Neither will Orthodoxy induce intelligent scientific 
Scepticism to acknowledge and experience the power 
of vital godliness, by bitter denunciations of heresy 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. II 

and unbelief. The christian world is seeing more 
clearly, that the Gospel means " Peace on earth, and 
good will toward men," — toward all men. There- 
fore we will not try to convert men by calling them 
hard names. Let us put away such childish things. 

I have read the words of Christ to Peter, given by 
St. Matthew, and his declaration to all the apostles, 
as recorded by St. John. I shall not undertake to 
say what the Protestant Churches understand these 
words to mean. We study this evening how the 
great body of Roman Catholic christians scattered 
over all the continents and many isles of the sea, 
most steadfastly receive them. 

The Roman Catholic Church believes and teaches 
that when Christ said to Peter, " Thou art Peter, and 
upon this rock I will build my church" he intended to 
invest Peter with the Primacy ; that is he gave him 
a dignity and authority over all the other apostles. 

The present Pope, Leo XIII, is the legitimate 
successor of St. Peter through a long but unbroken 
line of Popes or Pontiffs who have occupied suc- 
cessively the Papal throne at Rome, the Holy City. 

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, sets forth 
that the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ. He is 
the Father and Governor of all the faithful ; of Cardi- 
nals, Archbishops, Bishops and Priests. He is the 



12 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Supreme Head of the Church on earth. His dignity 
and jurisdiction are not based on human constitu- 
tions, but emanate from God himself. 

Not only is this jurisdiction over the Church given 
to the Pope, there has also been guaranteed to him 
the grace of Infallibility : — " Whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth , shall be bound in heaven" 

However it is not meant that the Pope is infalli- 
ble as a man, a scholar, a priest, a temporal prince, 
a judge, or as a legislator. 

" He is neither incapable of sin in his life and 
conduct, in his political views, his relations with 
princes, nor even in the government of the Church j 
but he is solely and exclusively infallible when in 
his quality of Supreme Doctor of the Church, he 
pronounces a decision in matter of faith or morals 
that ought to be accepted and held as obligatory by 
all the people." 

It is, therefore, an official ox doctrinal, not a personal 
Infallibility. 

This is not the popular Protestant notion of Infalli- 
bility, but it is the Catholic idea of it, and every 
Church ought to be allowed to define its own dogmas. 

It being established to the satisfaction of all 
devout Romanists, that there is an infallible source, 
whence comes religious instruction, a mighty effect 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 1$ 

is given to the truths and doctrines promulgated by 
the authority of the Church. Whoever hears, has 
only to obey. There is no appeal to the individual 
judgment and conscience. 

The foundation being secure, the Church abides 
in strength. I venture the assertion, that careful 
study of the doctrines of this large body of chris- 
tians, will show that its entire system of dogma and 
ecclesiastical polity is a logical outgrowth of the 
germinal ideas which Roman Catholics find in the 
text. 

A growth, the Romanist would say, in the same 
sense as the oak is the product of an acorn ; that is,, 
in the acorn existed, though in miniature, every fea- 
ture that appears in the tree. The Protestant says, 
a growth, not by evolution but by accretion; as a snow- 
ball grows when rolled about. 

And must it not be acknowledged that if the 
power of the "keys" is what the Roman Catholic 
christian believes it to be, and if this power was 
granted only to St. Peter and his successors, the 
Popes, then all we Protestants are heretics, — schis- 
matics, — recreant to the true faith, and ought at 
once to reenter the fold. So the Romanist believes, 
and we shall not seek to-night to disabuse his mind 
of what we as sincerely hold to be his error. 



14 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Having examined the foundation stones of the 
Roman Catholic Temple, let us walk round about 
the structure, telling the towers thereof, and marking 
well her bulwarks. 

We shall find much in the creed of this Church 
that is of exceeding "good report/'" For as to no 
nation or clime God has given all the beneficent 
products of nature, so to no people or Church is 
there allowed a monopoly of his truth. There is 
truth everywhere ; in Romanism and in Protestant- 
ism, with Jew and with Gentile, in America and in 
Africa. Let us therefore have charity. 

An intelligent Roman Catholic believes that " all 
the doctrines of Christianity, in which the faithful 
are to be instructed, are derived from the Word 
of God, which includes scripture and tradition. " 
(Catechism of the Council of Trent.) Here is one 
essential difference between Protestantism and 
Roman Catholicism. 

The Protestant accepts only the Sacred Scriptures 
as authority in teaching doctrines ; and regards tradi- 
tions as having no force except incidentally to con- 
firm the Scriptures. The Romanist on the other 
hand, considers traditions as adopted by the Councils 
of the Church, of equal value with the Bible in the 
preservation and propagation of the truth. This 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. I 5 

conclusion logically follows the premise assumed, 
namely, that the Church has been given in its organic 
capacity, the power to preserve and explain the 
Scriptures. Thus believing it can give, by a General 
Council, all the authority of a " Thus saith the 
Lord" to whatever traditions it may approve. 

The Roman Catholic Church has classified the 
truths revealed by the Almighty in four divisions, 
to wit : — The Apostles'* Creed, The Sacraments, The 
Ten Commandments, and The Lord's Prayer. 

The Creed contains all that can be known of God, 
the creation and government of the world, the 
redemption of man, the reward of the good, and the 
punishment of the wicked. 

The Seven Sacraments are the signs and instru- 
ments of grace. 

The Decalogue is the law given upon Mt. Sinai, 
and written on tables of stone. 

The Lord's Prayer embraces all the christian's 
desires, hopes and prayers, (v. Preface to Catechism 
of the Council of Trent?) 

Let us acquaint ourselves with these particulars. 
There is first the Creed. 

By this is meant the Apostles' Creed, which is an 
early summary of the christian faith, believed by the 
Catholic to have been formulated by the Apostles 



l6 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

themselves. Protestants think it of later origin. It 
is accepted as authority by all christians — Greek, 
Roman Catholic, and the Protestant Churches, except 
possibly some of the Unitarian branches. 

How many of you can recite the Apostles' Creed ? 

Perhaps I had better give it to you. It is brief, 
but full of truth. You will hardly find elsewhere 
such a body of religious instruction crystallized in 
so few words. 

" I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son 
our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost ; 
born of the Virgin Mary ; suffered under Pontius 
Pilate ; was crucified, dead, and buried ; he descended 
into hell ; the third day he rose from the dead ; he 
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand 
of God the Father Almighty ; from thence he shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in 
the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church, the 
communion of saints ; the forgiveness of sins ; the 
resurrection of the body ; and the life everlasting. 
Amen." 

There is an ancient tradition accepted by many 
writers of the Church of Rome, that this creed was 
settled upon by the Apostles, under the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, just previously to their departure 
from Jerusalem, to preach the Gospel in all the 
regions round about. Each of the Apostles is 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 1 7 

believed to have contributed at least one sentence. 
By this means unity in doctrine was secured among 
those whom they invited to accept the christian faith. 

This creed has been developed and explained by 
several General Councils, and by some of the fathers; 
and we may reckon among the symbols of the Roman 
Catholic Church, the Apostles' Creed, the Athanasian 
Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Pope 
Pius IV, contained in the decrees of the Council of 
Trent. 

We. shall find occasion to refer to these again in 
defining the doctrines of the Church. 

A good Catholic is a firm believer in the reality 
and efficacy of the Sacraments. These are seven in 
number : — Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, 
Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony. 
Any one of these administered to a believer confers 
upon him grace which he cannot otherwise receive. 

The word " Sacrament " primarily means a pledge. 
The oath taken by a soldier promising military ser- 
vice, might be called a sacrament. This, however, 
is not the meaning of the word as used by the Latin 
Fathers. The Church signifies by the term, " A 
sacred thing which lies concealed ; " a Mystery. 

A sacrament is also a sign. A word is a sign for 
an idea. " A sign, besides what it presents to the 



1 8 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

senses, is a medium through which we arrive at the 
knowledge of something else ; from a footstep, for 
instance, which we see traced on the ground, we 
instantly infer that some one whose footstep appears 
has passed." 

The Sacrament of Baptism is a sign or witness 
that by the Holy Spirit, the soul of a sinner is 
cleansed from all the stains and guilt of sin, and 
enriched with the gift of justification. 

But a sacrament is something more than such a 
sign or witness. The Church teaches it is not only 
that, but by divine appointment the sacrament has 
power to effect or produce what is " wrought in the 
soul by the invisible operation of the Holy Ghost." 
Sacraments have been instituted because of the 
inability of the human mind to attain knowledge 
except by the medium of sensible objects ; as pledges 
of God's purpose to redeem his promises ; to convey 
the sovereign remedies of the Gospel directly to the 
soul ; to distinguish the faithful by certain marks or 
symbols ; that the soul, in their use, may openly 
confess its faith ; and by their simplicity to subdue 
the pride of the human heart. 

Baptism as we have seen, is at once the witness 
that the sins of the candidate are removed, — and it 
is the means whereby they are removed. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 19 

All the sacraments are to be reverenced with the 
most profound veneration, and received with ardent 
devotion, for in them "exists the power of the 
Omnipotent" 

They are not all of equal necessity. The most 
important are Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist. 
Baptism is necessary in order to enter heaven. Even 
infants are not saved without baptism. 

In an adult candidate for Baptism it is required 
that he be repentant, and have a fixed determina- 
tion to refrain from future sins ; then he is baptised 
and taught that his original sin, and his actual guilt, 
however enormous, are remitted ; his soul is enriched 
with spiritual gifts ; the virtues are increased ; he is 
united to Christ, is sealed with a character that can 
never be effaced from the soul, and the portals of 
heaven which sin had closed, are opened to him 
again. 

Confirmation is the second sacrament. "This 
sacrament is called Confirmation, because if no 
obstacle is opposed to its efficacy, the person who 
receives it, when anointed with the sacred chrism, by 
the hand of the Bishop, who accompanies the unction 
with these words : * I sign thee with the sign of the 
cross, and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 



20 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

the Holy Ghost/ is confirmed in strength by receiv- 
ing new virtue, and becomes a perfect soldier of 
Christ." 

Through Baptism a man is born to newness of life ; 
by Confirmation he grows to full maturity. 

" In Baptism the christian is enlisted into the 
service, in Confirmation he is equipped for battle; 
at the baptismal font the Holy Ghost imparts the 
plenitude of innocence, in Confirmation the perfec- 
tion of grace \ in Baptism we are cleansed ; in Con- 
firmation we are strengthened ; regeneration saves 
by its own efficacy those who receive Baptism in 
peace, Confirmation arms and prepares for the con- 
flict." {Pope Melchiades^) 

Only the Bishops are permitted to administer this 
sacrament; Priests and Deacons may not presume 
to exercise the high privilege. 

Confirmation is not absolutely necessary to salva- 
tion. Yet if possible it ought to be received by the 
faithful disciple. 

" Of all the sacred mysteries bequeathed to us by 
our Lord," says the Catechism of the Council of 
Trent, u there is none that can be compared to the 
most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist ; for no crime, 
therefore, is there reserved by God a more terrible 
vengeance than for the sacrilegious abuse of this 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 21 

adorable Sacrament, which is replete with holiness 
itself." 

The word "Eucharist" may mean " the thanks- 
giving." The Sacrament is sometimes called " The 
Sacrifice," the "Sacrament of Peace and Charity," the 
" Communion," the " Supper," and "The Viaticum ; " 
but it is more especially called by this last term 
when administered to a dying person, it being thought 
the soul is thus furnished with spiritual food for its 
long journey. 

The Eucharist differs from the other sacraments 
in two particulars : First, they are really Sacraments 
only when their administration has been completed ; 
the Eucharist is a sacrament as soon as the bread 
and wine have been consecrated by the priest. And 
secondly, in baptism and confirmation for instance, 
the water and oil are not changed in nature, whereas 
in the Eucharist " that which before consecration was 
bread and wine, becomes after consecration, really 
and substantially the body and blood of our Lord." 
Mark ! " Really and substantially" not chemically > 
for the " accidents " of the bread and wine remain. 
They have the same appearance, taste and smell as 
before, yet really they have been invisibly and 
miraculously changed into the body and blood of 
Christ. 



22 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Now lest I should convey a wrong idea of the 
doctrine of the Church upon this subject, I quote 
from the catechism already named : 

" The Catholic Church, then, firmly believes and 
openly professes that in this sacrament, the words of 
consecration accomplish three things ; first, that the 
true and real body of Christ, the same that was 
born of the Virgin and is now seated at the right 
hand of the Father in heaven, is rendered present 
in the Holy Eucharist : secondly, that however re- 
pugnant it may seem to the dictate of the senses, no 
substance of the elements remains in the sacrament ; 
and thirdly, the substance of the bread and wine is 
so changed into the body and blood of our Lord, 
that they altogether cease to be the substance of 
bread and wine. This is of course a mystery, and 
one that is not to be curiously inquired into." 

This sacrament, like the others, imparts grace to 
the soul, if the communicant be in a proper condition to 
receive it, just as daily food repairs the wastes of the 
bodily system. It also remits the venial or trifling 
sins which have been committed. It must be received 
at least once a year ; for the " Church has decreed 
that whoever neglects to approach the Holy Com- 
munion once a year, at Easter, subjects himself to 
sentence of excommunication." 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 23 

Now if the body and blood of our Lord are 
truly and literally present in the Eucharist, there is 
great honor and dignity due the elements \ hence 
the " Worship of the Host; " hence the withholding 
of the cup from the laity, in order to avoid the 
accident of spilling the wine — or blood, which would 
be deemed a great indignity to the Savior. 

The Eucharist is not only a sacrament — it is also 
a true sacrifice. In this character it is known as the 
Mass. 

" Our Lord himself at his last supper, offered to 
his Eternal Father, his precious body and blood 
under the appearance of bread and wine." 

The Mass is the same sacrifice as that of the cross. 
It is more than a sacrifice of praise ; it is a sacrifice 
of propitiation. — " So acceptable to God is the sweet 
odour of this sacrifice, that through its oblation he 
pardons our sins, bestowing on us the gifts of grace 
and of repentance." 

The difference between High Mass and Low Mass 
is simply that in the High Mass the ritual is sung or 
chanted, — in Low Mass, it is said by the priest. 

The Mass, as often as it is celebrated, is a sacrifice 
which benefits not only the priest and the commu- 
nicant ; it avails for all the faithful, living or dead, 
whose sins have not been fully expiated. Hence the 



24 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

celebration of the Mass in behalf of the pious dead. 

In such light does the devout Roman Catholic 
regard the Eucharistic feast — nor must he hold in 
mental reservation, one jot or tittle of implicit faith in 
the doctrine of his Church concerning it. 

To doubt, is to be damned. 

The sacrament of which I will next speak, is that 
of Penance. 

"For those who fall into sin after Baptism, the 
Sacrament of Penance is as necessary to salvation, 
as is Baptism for those who have not already been 
baptized." 

Let it be remembered that in many passages of 
the Bible, where our Authorized Version has the 
word repentance^ the Douay Version (which is in use 
by Roman Catholics,) has in the corresponding 
places the term 'penance. 

Various meanings are given to this word penance. 

It is used sometimes to express a change of mind, 
without any reference to the causes or motives pro- 
ducing such change. 

It signifies the sorrow which a sinner feels, on 
account of the certainty of punishment for bis trans- 
gressions. 

It is also the godly grief of the soul, not because 
it fears the vengeance of a just God, but that grief 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 2$ 

which springs from a sense of the enormity of the 
guilt of sins committed against a Holy and Merciful 
God. 

This last is the signification in which Penance is 
held to be a Sacrament. 

It is precisely what we Protestants consider to be 
the spiritual meaning of true repentance ; that " godly 
sorrow for sin/' which itself needeth not to be 
repented of. 

Penance has been constituted a sacrament, in 
order that all uncertainty as to the pardon of sin 
might be removed. The penitent by his words and 
actions declares he has turned away from his sins, — 
and the solemn " I absolve thee," from the lips of 
the priest, is the unimpeachable evidence of the re- 
moval of his guilt. — " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them." 

But the true Catholic must remember that genuine 
Penance includes sorrow for past sins, a purpose to 
sin no more, restitution wherever possible, repairing 
the injury done to another as far as may be, and 
confession to the priest. 

Confession must be made at least once a year. 

These requisites having been fulfilled, the penitent 
believes that "Penance becomes the channel through 



26 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

which the blood of Christ flows into the sou/, washing 
away all the sins committed after baptism." 

St. James in his Epistle, writes : " Is any sick 
among you ? let him call for the elders of the church \ 
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil 
in the name of the Lord : And the prayer of faith 
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; 
and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven 
him." Chap, v : 14-15. 

In these verses the Roman Catholic Church finds 
authority for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. 

When the devout soul is in fear of death nigh at 
hand, and is alarmed by the thought of soon stand- 
ing before the judgment seat cf God, the priest is 
summoned to administer this comforting sacrament. 

Its form is a solemn prayer, repeated as the priest 
successively touches with the anointing oil, the eyes, 
ears, nose, lips, hands and feet of the sick person : 
to wit : " By this Holy Unction, and through his 
Great Mercy, may God indulge (or remit, as some 
say,) thee whatever sins thou hast committed by 
sight, hearing, smell, speech, hands and feet." 

As the grace of the baptismal sacrament removes 
original sin, and Penance remits mortal sins com- 
mitted after baptism, so Extreme Unction secures 
the remission of venial or trifling sins, quiets the 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. . 2J 

fear of the soul, fortifies against the assaults of 
Satan in the dying hour, and enables one to await 
with patience the coming of the Lord. 

This sacrament is of exceeding " good report '> 
among our Catholic fellow-christians. Doubtless 
hosts of dying men and women have been enabled 
by the comfortable assurance of this sacrament, to 
say with exultant faith, " O death, where is thy sting ? 
O grave, where is thy victory ? " 

The reality and efficacy of the sacraments already 
described being devoutly acknowledged by the 
Catholic, it is easy for him to believe the authority 
to administer them has been duly given by our Lord 
to certain officers of his Church, and that only such 
persons may, without sacrilege, minister in holy 
things. Therefore the Sacrament of Orders is of 
great dignity in the mind of the faithful Romanist. 
Indeed the perpetuity and success of the Church 
depends upon the right understanding and main- 
tenance of Holy Orders. 

Now this sacrament is not for all, but for those 
only who have been " Called of God as Aaron was," 
and a candidate receiving it in any one of its degrees 
is invested with invisible grace, whereby he is en- 
abled to discharge the duties of his office. 

The number of Orders is seven, and they are com- 



28 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

prised in two classes, to wit : Minor Orders, such 
as Porter, Reader, Exorcist, and Acolyte; Holy 
Orders, as Sub-Deacon, Deacon, and Priest. 

The work of the Porter corresponds somewhat 
to that of a Sexton in a Protestant Church ; the 
Reader reads the Sacred Scriptures, and sometimes 
gives instruction therefrom ; the Exorcist invokes 
the name of the Lord in behalf of those possessed 
by unclean spirits ; the Acolyte serves those who 
minister at the Altar. 

To a Sub-Deacon it belongs to prepare the Altar- 
linen, the sacred vessels, and the bread and wine 
for the Mass. He has also authority to read the 
Epistles in the congregation. 

The Deacon aids the Priest in administering the 
sacraments, and at the Sacrifice of the Mass. He 
may also expound the Gospel to the people. 

A Priest administers the Sacraments of the Church, 
celebrates the Mass, and preaches the Gospel. 

" The Order of Priesthood, although essentially 
one, has different degrees of dignity," which refer 
rather to the jurisdiction of the incumbents as rulers 
of the Church, than to any difference in the posses- 
sion of sacramental grace. 

The ascending scale of such authority is, — Priest, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 29 

Bishop, Archbishop, Patriarch, and the Sovereign 
Pontiff, or Pope. 

The laity of the Roman Catholic Church render 
most joyful and hearty obedience to these their 
spiritual rulers — in the Kingdom of Christ upon 
earth. 

Last but not least of the Sacraments is that of 
Marriage. The opinion of this Church concerning 
the sanctity and obligations of marriage is evident 
in placing it among the seven Sacred Mysteries of 
grace. 

The Catholic finds warrant for so doing in the 
words of the Apostle : 

" For this cause shall a man leave his father and 
mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be 
two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, but I 
speak in Christ, and in the Church." — (Douay Ver- 
sion.) 

The indissolubility of the marriage bond is most 
emphatically insisted upon by the standards of the 
Church, because that fact ensures the stability of 
the family, and the right education of children in 
the religion and worship of the True God. 

The influence of such instruction concerning mar- 
riage, is most salutary in these days of loose ideas 
of it, and worse practice by many who for trivial and 



30 



WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 



unlawful reasons seek the dissolution of the mar- 
riage bond. 

Must not we acknowledge that in this country at 
least, the Roman Catholic Church aims to promote 
true morality, and succeeds in holding its member- 
ship to faithful performance of the duties of married 
life ? 

The records of the courts show that but few of 
her sons and daughters seek the unlawful liberty of 
release from the conjugal bond. 

Shall we not say " God-speed " to any organiza- 
tion that so sincerely enforces the mandate of the 
Almighty : " What God hath joined together, let not 
man put asunder" 

There has now been given you a panoramic view 
of the chief articles of faith accepted by Roman 
Catholics. 

I think careful examination of the Catechism of 
the Council of Trent respecting the Decalogue and 
the Lord's Prayer, will find but little that a Protest- 
ant cannot believe. 

We should not of course agree with our brethren 
that the honor and invocation of Saints can be justi- 
fied, even though such honor be entirely distinct 
from the supreme homage due the Almighty. 

Nor would we, believing that " There is one Medi- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 3 I 

ator between God and men" invoke their prayers in 
our behalf. Yet as Protestants we ought to know 
that the Roman Catholic Church declares the " Saints 
u are invoked simply to obtain their intercession for 
" us j that the proper use of images is to instruct in 
" the Bible History, and revive recollections of the 
" events which they record, that thus excited to con- 
template heavenly things we may more ardently 
" adore and love God ; and that images of the Saints 
" are placed in churches not only to be honored, but 
" that admonished by their example we may emulate 
" their virtues," 

Most of the Protestant Churches believe that death 
is the end of probation. The doctrine of Purgatory 
cannot, therefore, be received by us. 

To reach heaven, the soul must be saved from sin 
in this life. 

The Roman Catholic idea of sin and the future 
world differs somewhat from ours. It is briefly that 
every sin, however small, deserves punishment ; but 
some small sins do not deserve eternal punishment. 
Very few persons depart this life so pure as to be 
free from a debt to God's justice; they must, there- 
fore, suffer for those sins in Purgatory until the guilt 
of these venial transgressions is purified. These 
souls in Purgatory may be aided by the prayers of 



32 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

friends on earth, and by the efficacy of alms and 
Masses offered in their behalf. 

The devout Romanist believes this doctrine as 
heartily as we reject it. 

Now I doubt not if, in the spirit of criticism, we 
should longer study the wonderfully developed sys- 
tem of dogmas which this Church steadfastly believes, 
there might be found much that a Protestant con- 
gregation could not commend. 

But can we not praise the spirit of obedience and 
the fervent devotion to their Church, manifested by 
this people ? 

Perhaps more than other christians they implicitly 
accept their faith. The individual judgment and 
conscience are subordinated to the will of the Church. 

There is much that is good in this denomination, 
and we think much also that is grievously wrong 
and obstructive to the progress of the truth. There 
is honest fear in the minds of many wise men — 
arising from its traditional policy and attitude toward 
civil governments. 

Let us remember that any Church, Protestant or 
Roman, is dangerous to a free government when it 
lends its influence to a political party, as such. 

It is to be feared that this Church is losing some- 
what its power to regulate the lives of the younger 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 33 

portion of its communion, especially those of Irish 
parentage. 

For is it not true that young Irishmen furnish a 
large proportion of the names which make up the 
Police reports, and fill the criminal records 1 These 
have departed from the straight way in which the 
true Catholic is taught by his Church to go. It is 
not the fault of the Creed. 

My hearers, one word more. Are you a Roman 
Catholic? Love your Church; receive its Sacra- 
ments, that they may lead you to love and serve 
the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. 

Are you a Protestant? Illustrate the faith that is 
in thee, by a well ordered Christian life. And upon 
you all, may the blessing rest, of Him who is the 
Great Head of the Church in all lands and of every 
name. Amen. 



II. 

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 



SERMON II. 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

As my father hath sent me, even so send I you. And 
when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said 
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. St. John, xx. 
21, 22. 

Hold fast the form of sound words. II. Timothy,, 
i. 13. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church establishes its 
claim to be a valid and Apostolic Christian Church, 
somewhat on this wise. 

It is well known that when the Apostles went forth 
after the day of Pentecost preaching the gospel of 
the kingdom of Christ, they traveled into many and 
distant lands, and great success attended the Word. 
In various parts of Asia, even as far east as India* 
in Northern Africa, and in Western Europe, Churches 
were planted, and converts multiplied. 

It is certain that St. Paul preached the gospel in 
Greece, in Rome the Capital City of the Empire, and 
there is good evidence that he spent some time in 
Spain witnessing for the truth, after his release from 
an imprisonment of Ci two whole years " at Rome. 



38 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

It is assumed with good reason, that the Church 
of England was established in the Apostolic age. 

It is no great stretch of historic credulity to be- 
lieve as many churchmen do, that St. Paul was the 
first Apostle to the British Isle, having crossed over 
from Spain during his long residence there. 

Ecclesiastical history proves to the satisfaction of 
churchmen the existence in the first three centuries 
of three Orders in the ministry, designated Bishops, 
Priests, and Deacons, and this was while the Church 
remained comparatively pure. 

The British Church had doubtless been modeled 
after the universal plan, having a three-fold minis- 
try — the Word, and the Sacraments. 

For several centuries the Churches in Rome, 
Britain, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Eastern Europe, and 
Asia, were accustomed to meet in councils, each 
Church having its own Bishop, who was equal in 
rank and authority with all other Bishops. 

It was not until about the seventh century that 
the Bishop of Rome succeeded in getting himself 
acknowledged by the Western churches as Primate 
of the entire Christian World. 

The Church in Greece, the Oriental Churches, to- 
gether with those of Northeastern Africa, did not 
admit his Primacy, and they have remained to this 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 39 

day independent of Rome, forming that part of 
the Universal Communion known as the Greek 
Church. Europe from Austria westward, bowed to 
the authority of the Imperial Bishop, and the Latin 
Church covered Western Europe, including Britain. 
The British Church was brought under the author- 
ity of the Romish power in this way : In 596. A. D., 
the Church at Rome sent Augustine and other Mis- 
sionaries, to convert the Saxons who had invaded 
Britain to Christianity. Very likely it was not aware 
that a fully developed Christian Church had been 
in existence upon the island almost as long as the 
Church of Rome itself. However, the Saxons were 
converted, and Rome usurped the privileges and 
government of the Church in Britain. Thus says 
Bishop Randall : 

" It is evident -that the Church was established in 
England, and, from a source entirely independent of 
Rome, nearly five hundred years before the Romish 
Church sent thither its emissaries." 

It is furthermore shown that during the darkness 
of the Middle Ages, the Pope's supremacy was con- 
tinually resisted by some of the purest and strongest 
of the English Bishops, and the errors of Rome were 
constantly denounced, while the time was most 



40 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

earnestly prayed for when the Ancient British Church 
could throw off the papal yoke. 

In the sixteenth century that glad day dawned 
upon England. The Reformation swept over the 
continent. Luther and his coadjutors were com- 
pelled to leave the Roman Catholic Church and 
rejecting its errors, they also threw away the divinely 
ordained ministry, with its three-fold orders, and 
established essentially a new Church. 

The British Church on the other hand renounced 

the authority of the Pope, which she believed never 

of right, to have been upon her, purged herself of 

the superstitions and errors imposed by the Romish 

hierarchy, and asserted her original independence. 

" The English Church, by the help of her divine 
Head, reformed herself. She did not thereby lose 
her identity, much less her Apostolic existence." — 
(Bishop Randall.) 

" The errors of the Church were not the Church 
herself; and in quitting them she did not quit herself, 
any more than a man changes his face when he 
washes it, or loses his identity when he recovers from 
a disease. The English Church after the Reforma- 
tion was as much the English Church, as Naaman 
was Naaman after he had washed away his leprosy 
in the river Jordan." 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 41 

The foregoing statements are, of course, a mere 
outline of the argument by which the Catholic and 
Apostolic Constitution of the Church of England 
is shown to the satisfaction of the "intelligent church- 
man. The full argument would require the marshal- 
ing of a host of references, dates, authorities and 
historic facts. 

The identity of the Church of England with the 
Ancient British Church being acknowledged, and its 
orders thereby proven to be valid and truly Apostolic, 
it can be shown that the Protestant Episcopal Church 
may lay just claim to the possession of the Apostolic 
succession. 

The connecting link between the Church in America 
and the Church in England is as strong as any part 
of the golden chain of divine authority and unction 
uniting the three-fold ministry, the Word, the Sacra- 
ments and the Church. 

In the early colonial era of American history, 
members of the English Communion were not 
numerous, and those who still cherished in their new 
homes, the creed and ritual of their mother Churchy 
suffered persecution therefor. 

In Massachusetts, the Puritans denied to Church- 
men certain political privileges, and it was made a 



42 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

penal offence to celebrate Christmas with religious 
services. 

The war of the Revolution suspended the relation 
which the English Church sustained to her missions 
in America. 

But in the year 1794* Rev. Samuel Seabury was 
elected Bishop by the Clergy in Connecticut, and 
soon afterwards was consecrated by three Scotch 
Bishops. 

Shortly after other Bishops were consecrated by 
Prelates in England, and the Church was established 
in the United States, having the three Orders in 
its Ministry, — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, — the 
Sacraments could be lawfully administered and the 
Word of God faithfully preached. 

The Bishops aforenamed have consecrated other 
Bishops, these Bishops have ordained Presbyters, 
Elders, or Priests, and Deacons, and thus down to 
the present time. So that my friends, Rev. Dr. 
Burrows and Rev. Mr. Parker, may consistently 
claim that they have been ordained and so authorized 
to dispense the word and administer the sacraments 
by a Bishop who had been consecrated by another 
Bishop, and so on, following the stream of suc- 
cessional grace up through the ravines of American, 
English, and early British history, to the time of 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 43 

St. Paul or some other Apostle who consecrated the 
first Bishop of Britain. 

The succession is therefore unbroken from the 
Apostles to Bishop Huntington of this Episcopal 
diocese. 

Now a Protestant Episcopal churchman most 
firmly believes "that the validity and effectiveness of 
ministerial orders depend upon the Apostolic suc- 
cession. The minister must have been ordained by 
a duly qualified Bishop. Hence, while the clergy of 
this Church give to us Dissenters all due social 
courtesy, and the christian amenities, they cannot 
consistently, nor in good conscience, recognize our 
orders, and admit us to their pulpits. 

And though some of them privately may not put 
much stress upon the dogma of- Apostolic succession, 
still Church order forbids such ministerial exchanges, 
and every man should be loyal to the doctrines and 
discipline of his Church. 

The Episcopalian, as is evident from what has 
already been said, believes in a three-fold ministry. 
He is firm in the faith that such distinctions among 
the clergy were the order in the primitive Church, 
and that for fifteen centuries from the time of the 
Apostles there was no other ministry in the Christian 
Church. 



44 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

If it be charged against the Episcopal Church 
that by its adherence to the dogma of Apostolic 
succession it thereby disfellowships other Churches 
which do not hold the same doctrine of orders, the 
answer is : If this doctrine be true, we are justified 
in conforming to it, and are compelled in loyalty to 
God, to maintain order in the Church. 

Practically this Church says of the other Churches, 
as Christ said of the man who cast out devils in His 
name, while he followed not the disciples, — "Forbid 
him not ; for he that is not against us is for us." 

And indeed the Episcopal Church could ill afford 
to have other Churches less prosperous, since at 
least one half of its communicants come from the 
Denominations. 

Perhaps some of you who have carefully followed 
me in this brief historic unfolding of the Episcopal 
Church, have learned some things you did not know. 
Remember them. " Buy the truth, and sell it not." 

Will it not be of interest now, to inquire concern- 
ing the general creed and doctrines of this Church, 
and especially when we note the fact that its com- 
parative growth in the last two decades has been 
greater than that of any other Christian Church in 
America ? 

You will remember that I said in the discourse 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 45 

upon the Roman Catholic Church, referring to the 
Apostles' Creed, that it is accepted by all christians, 
with few exceptions, as an authoritative epitome of 
the fundamental doctrines of the Holy Book. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church heartily receives 
it. I think there can be no regular public service in 
that Church, in which this very ancient symbol of 
the faith of the soul in the power and blessedness of 
Christianity, is not unitedly repeated. 

It must be acknowledged even by those who 
are not stated worshippers in this communion, that 
there is a solemnity, dignity and beauty in such an 
united pouring forth from hundreds of lips and 
hearts of the simple but comprehensive " I believe." 

I could wish that other Communions would practice 
the commendable custom. 

The Episcopal Church does not believe that the 
creed was drawn up by the Apostles themselves ; but 
that the greater part of it was derived from the very 
days of the Apostles there is evidence in the testi- 
monies of the most ancient writers. 

In the Epistles of St. Ignatius, who was Bishop of 
Antioch in the latter part of the first century, and . 
who had probably known personally many of the 
Apostles, most of its articles may be found. St. 
Ambrose of Alexandria, who flourished the first part 



46 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

of the third century, gives the entire creed. Its 
antiquity is thus evident. 

I do not need to revert to each of its articles, or 
try to explain in what sense they are to be under- 
stood. 

The Nicene Creed as it stands in the prayer book, 
and which may be said in place of the Apostles' 
Creed, sufficiently unfolds its meaning, and, there- 
fore, I will repeat it to you : 

" I believe in one God the Father Almighty, 
Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible 
and invisible ; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the 
only begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father be- 
fore all worlds : God of God. Light of Light, very 
God of very God, Begotten not made, Being of one 
substance with the Father : By whom all things 
were made ; Who, for us men, and for our salvation, 
came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the 
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary. And was made 
man. And was crucified also for us under Pontius 
Pilate. He suffered and was buried ; And the third 
day he rose again, according to the Scriptures ; And 
ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand 
of the Father. And he shall come again with glory 
to judge both the quick and the dead ; Whose king- 
dom shall have no end. 

" And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and 
Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 47 

the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together 
is worshiped and glorified. Who spake by the 
Prophets. And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic 
Church. 

" I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of 
sins : And I look for the Resurrection of the dead. 
And the Life of the world to come. Amen." 

Surely there is not in my congregation this even- 
ing a devout disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, wheth- 
er Romanist, Churchman, or Dissenter, who cannot 
say with heartiest, happiest faith : i; Amen." 

Perhaps you noticed there is one Article of the 
Apostles'" Creed that is omitted in the Xicene Creed, 
viz : " He descended into hell.'"' 

In the Episcopal service, when the Apostles' Creed 
is recited, it is permitted instead of saying. "He de- 
scended into hell/" to say, " He went into the place 
of departed spirits." Such is thought to be the 
meaning of the words ; and the Xicene creed indeed 
implies the same truth in the article " He suffered,''' 
that is, died, "'and was buried." 

In order to give you in as brief a manner as possi- 
ble some acquaintance with the more fully developed 
faith of the Protestant Episcopal Church, I will 
review the " Articles of Religion," which are an 
abridgment or modification of the Articles of Re- 
ligion of the Church of England. 



48 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

They are thirty-nine in number, and were adopted 
by the bishops, clergy and laity of the Church in the 
United States, in convention, September 12th, 1801. 

The first five of the Articles are an exposition of 
the creed concerning the Trinity, the Son of God, 
the descent of Christ into hell, His.resurrection, and 
the Holy Ghost. 

I need not give them, as they state what all ortho- 
dox Christians believe, — Protestant and Romanist ; 
except that as we have already seen, the " descent 
into hell " means only the departure of Christ to the 
invisible world, but not as the Romanist believes in 
order to liberate from suffering those who were held 
in painful captivity and to impart to them the fruit of 
his pain. For says the Roman Catholic, all w r ho had 
died since Adam had been detained in purgatory; 
the good in "Abraham's bosom," the bad in Tophet. 
Christ descended to open the gates of heaven to 
those who had been freed from the stains of sin, by 
purgatorial fires. 

The Protestant Episcopal faith rejects this idea. 

Article VI. declares the sufficiency of Holy Scrip- 
ture for salvation, and by implication rejects tradi- 
tions. The names of the canonical books are given 
as they appear in our common version, the Apocry-. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 49 

pha being omitted, which is not done by the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

Article VII. recites that the Mosaic ceremonial 
and ritual law is not obligatory, but that the moral 
law of the Old Testament is still in force. 

In Article VIII. the Apostles' and the Xicene 
creeds are endorsed. 

Then follow articles setting forth original sin, or 
the corruption of our nature ; that we are inclined 
to evil, and by nature deserving of God's wrath and 
damnation ; that unaided by the grace of God we 
cannot turn away from our sins, the will being en- 
slaved by sin ; that we can be justified or pardoned 
only through faith in Jesus Christ ; that good works 
are evidence of faith, as a tree is known by its fruit ; 
that w r e cannot merit God's favor ; that after we have 
done all, we are unprofitable servants ; that Christ 
alone is without sin * also that after we have received 
the Holy Ghost, " we may depart from grace given, 
and fall into sin, and by the grace of God rise again, 
amend our lives, and being truly repentant, receive 
forgiveness." 

Article XVII. treats of the doctrine of Predestina- 
tion and Election, and is somewhat ambiguous, or at 
least so comprehensive in its statements, that it is 
susceptible of being interpreted as Calvinistic, or as 



50 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Arminian, according to the predilection of the person 
studying it. 

But whether the Article is Calvinistic or not, it is 
certain the greater part of the clergy and laity of the 
Church of England and of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church are thoroughly Arminian in their views of the 
subject of election. 

Succeeding articles declare the truth that only by 
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ can men be saved, 
and not by their sincerity, or faithfulness to the light 
of nature ; that the Church is a congregation of faith- 
ful men, in which the Word of God is preached, and 
the Sacraments administered according to Christ's 
ordinance ; that the Church has no authority to en- 
force the belief of anything that is contrary to God's 
Word. The Romish doctrines of Purgatory, pardons* 
worshiping and adoration of the Saints are declared 
to be grounded on no warranty of Scripture, but are 
repugnant to the Word of God. No man is to preach 
and administer the sacraments, unless he has been 
lawfully sent by men who have authority thus to act; 
public prayer and the sacraments are to be observed 
and ministered in the tongue of the people, contrary 
to the custom of the Roman Catholic Church which 
everywhere uses the Latin language. 

In Article XXX. the sacraments are defined as 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 5 I 

badges or tokens of a christian's profession, as well 
as sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace and of 
God's good will toward us, by which he doth work 
invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also 
strengthen and confirm our faith in him. 

There are only two sacraments, Baptism and the 
Supper of the Lord. 

Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Extreme Unction, 
and Matrimony do not have the nature of sacraments. 

Baptism is a sign or mark of difference, whereby 
christian men are distinguished from others. It is 
also a sign of the new birth, and of our adoption into 
the family of God. 

Infant baptism is to be retained in the Church, as 
most agreeable with the institution of Christ. 

The Lord's Supper is a sign of fraternal christian 
love, and a sacrament of our redemption by the 
death of Christ. Those who worthily and in faith 
receive it — partake in an heavenly and spiritual 
manner of the body and blood of Christ. 

The dogma of Trans-substantiation is rejected. 
The Eucharist is not a sacrifice, as is taught by the 
Romish Church in the Mass. Such dogmas are 
declared to be blasphemous fables and dangerous 
deceits. The laity are to take the cup as well as the 
bread. The celibacy of the clergy is not enjoined. 



52 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Excommunicated persons may be received back into 
the Church after due penitence. 

Forms of worship in the Church may be varied 
according to the diversity of countries, times and 
manners, but no person should violate the traditions 
and ceremonies of the Church which are not contrary 
to the Bible. 

The concluding articles relate to the consecration 
of Bishops and the Ordination of Ministers, the 
denial of any temporal or civil power to the Church; 
denial of a community of worldly goods, and admis- 
sion of the lawfulness of civil oaths administered by 
a magistrate. 

Assent to all the articles is not enjoined upon 
every person who comes into the Church, but those 
who receive authority to teach in her communion 
must believe them. 

The foregoing outline of the doctrines of the 
Episcopal Church indicates that many of the articles 
have the nature of a protest against some error or 
false dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. 

We thus see the significance of the organic name 
Protestant Episcopal Church. While claiming to 
have a valid Episcopacy traceable to the Apostles, 
this Church magnifies her character as a permanent 
and effectual Protest against the senseless dogmas 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 53 

and soul-destroying errors of the Church of Rome. 
The Articles of Religion beside being an antidote 
to the poison of false doctrine, embrace most of the 
grand truths accepted by all Protestantism, and they 
are not, therefore, the peculiar faith of the Episcopal 
Church. 

The Church, however, in making them the standard 
of her belief, occupies a position strongly fortified 
by the Word of God, and proves herself not only 
Protestant but also Scriptural. For see; the 
Episcopal Church plainly teaches the doctrines of 
human depravity, not total depravity, the necessity 
of a change of heart, as shown in Article X. and in 
many prayers : " God make clean our hearts ; " 
" Create in us new and contrite hearts" and numerous 
other petitions like these. Also the doctrine of the 
Trinity, justification by faith, — in short as regards 
the fundamental truths of God's Word it is evident 
the Episcopal Church has not departed from the 
"faith once delivered to the saints." Therefore, side 
by side press along down the path of time, toward 
the eternal land, Churchman and Presbyterian, Bap- 
tist and Methodist, each and all clinging to the 
inspired Book as the only charter of human liberty, 
and only guide in matters of religious faith. And 
we find, especially we Methodists and Arminians, 



54 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

but little reason for argument and strife with our 
Episcopal friends and fellow-christians. "Behold 
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
together in unity I " 

Very likely most of my non-Episcopal hearers are 
quite ready to admit that this Church may consist- 
ently claim to have a genuine Apostolic Ministry, 
and may be truly " Protestant " as to the supersti- 
tions of Rome, — while at the same time its modes 
of worship are so peculiar and so formal, as to need 
some reasonable explanation or justification. And 
you are saying : — " Please tell us by what arguments 
the Episcopal Church proves the lawfulness of the 
use of a Liturgy or forms of prayer, and a ritual in 
the public service." 

Doubtless many christians are conscientiously 
opposed to " forms." They say " The letter killeth" 
They do not believe there can be any sincerity in 
the repetition of the same prayers Sabbath after 
Sabbath, year following year. It seems so heart- 
less> — a mockery of God. 

I know some christians who will not say even the 
Lord's Prayer in unison with the congregation. Let us 
respect their conscientiousness and at the same time 
pray that their judgments may be enlightened. 

In finding the reasons for the use of a Liturgy in 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 55 

the Episcopal Church, I am somewhat indebted to a 
lecture by Bishop Randall, of Colorado, in answer 
to the question, " Why I am a Churchman." From 
the same source I have gleaned other suggestions 
already given in this sermon. 

It is claimed by the Church that the use of a 
Liturgy in divine service is authorized by the Scrip- 
tures j for it can be shown therefrom that since the 
erection of the Tabernacle forms have been used in 
prayer and blessing. 

" When an Israelite brought to the priest ' the first 
fruits] he was required to repeat a form of words." 

The careful student of the Jewish tabernacle and 
temple worship will find overwhelming proof of the 
continued use of a Liturgy. 

It is not disputed that Christ himself joined with 
the Jews in the service of the Temple and the 
Synagogue. 

" What the stated public prayers were in the time 
of our Lord it is now impossible exactly to ascertain ; 
it is probable that many of the eighteen prayers 
which are said to have been collected by Rabbi 
Gamaliel, the master of St. Paul, were then in use. 

We know it was customary for the more eminent 
doctors of the Jews to compose forms of short 
prayers, which they delivered to their scholars. 



$6 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

John the Baptist gave his disciples such a form ; 
and Jesus Christ, at the request of his disciples, 
gave them that most perfect model emphatically 
termed The Lord's Prayer, — (Home's Introduction, 
Vol. III., p. 296.) 

As further evidence that our Lord did not intend 
to discountenance the use of a Liturgy, it can be 
shown that all the petitions of that wonderfully com- 
prehensive prayer may be found in different portions 
of the Jewish Liturgy. 

Remember also that our Savior in the garden 
prayed three times, " using the same words." On 
the Cross he prayed, and the prayer was simply 
quotations from well-known Psalms. 

It is asserted that "for fifteen hundred years, 
Liturgies were everywhere used in the Church of 
Christ," and so was kept the injunction of the 
Apostle, " Hold fast the form of sound words" 
Furthermore the devout worshiper by the forms of 
a Liturgy, declares, and with much truth, — that all 
religious services are formal. The minister leading 
in extemporaneous prayer, uses his own words as a 
form for the congregation, in which they are supposed 
to address their prayer to God. And the form does 
not vary much from January to December, as a study 
of the prayers of any pastor in his pulpit will show. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 57 

It is also certain that the most appropriate and 
expressive sentences in extemporaneous prayers are 
those taken from the Bible, and especially from the 
Psalms of David. Therefore the most effectual 
prayer is one composed of language not our own 
except as it becomes such when repeated sincerely 
and in faith. 

Another reason why Episcopalians cling to the 
Prayer Book, with its unchanging Liturgy and Con- 
fessions, Creeds and Prayers, is that it has become 
an anchor to hold the faith of the worshiper. 

" Every cardinal doctrine of the Gospel is regularly 
brought to the attention of the congregation through- 
out the year, so that if they are not thoroughly 
instructed in every part of the Gospel system of 
salvation, it is their own fault." — (Bishop Randall.) 

The simplicity, chasteness and beauty of the lan- 
guage of the Book of Common Prayer, minister to 
the esthetic, the moral, and the spiritual instincts of 
our nature. 

But in commending the Prayer Book I can do no 
better than to quote from the lecture to which refer- 
ence has already been made. 

" Of the excellence of the English Prayer Book, of 
which our own is almost an exact copy, Dr. Adam 
Clarke, the distinguished Methodist, thus speaks : 



58 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

' It is the greatest effort of the reformation, next to 
the translation of the Scriptures into the English 
language. . . . . As a form of 

devotion it has no equal in any part of the Uni- 
versal Church of God. .... Next 
to the Bible, it is the Book of my understanding, and 
of my heart." 

Robert Hall, the eloquent English Baptist, thus 
speaks of it : " I believe that the evangelical purity 
of its sentiments, the chastened fervor of its devotions, 
and the majestic simplicity of its language have com- 
bined to place it in the very first rank of uninspired 
compositions." 

Dr. Doddridge, the eminent commentator, thus 
speaks of it : " The language is so plain as to be level 
to the capacity of the meanest, and yet the sense is 
so noble as to raise the capacity of the greatest." 

My hearers, — whether you are Romanist, Episco- 
pal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, or of any other 
name, — I think you believe in, and bless God for the 
existence, and the success of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in teaching sinners the way of truth and 
life. 

Its creed we all believe is derived from the word of 
God. Its form of worship tends to fasten that creed 
in the mind of every worshiper in its sanctuaries. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 59 

Hundreds and thousands of rejoicing saints have 
gone up to heaven from the homes where its service 
and labor is loved, and thousands more are on the 
way. 

I have not preached this sermon to induce any 
one to unite with the Episcopal Church, but to show 
you, as best I might, the catholicity of its doctrines, 
and the beauty of its Ritual. 

If providential circumstances, and knowledge of 
its excellencies, leads one to make it his spiritual 
home, well might he say — " How goodly are thy tents, 
O Jacob i and thy tabernacles. O Israel" "The lines 
are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; Yea, I have a 
goodly heritage" 

Let us who are not of its communion, bless God, 
that its inflexible devotion to the fundamental truths 
of the Bible, is one of the mightiest bulwarks against 
modern infidelity. For he who has from childhood 
repeated at every service the Apostles' Creed, will 
have received enough of its truth to forbid his wander- 
ing into the mazes of liberalism, and the darkness of 
unbelief. 

Let us be glad, that it baptizes the children, re- 
ceives them into the fold by confirmation, and trains 
them in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

Finally let us rejoice for what this, and all other 



60 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Churches have done to bring men to the knowledge 
of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

And God grant that we may all become members 
of the "Glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, 
nor any such thing f and be admitted to the fellowship 
of the Church triumphant, which is " without fault 
before the throne of God" 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christy and the love of 
God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us 
all evermore. Anien. 



III. 

PRESBYTERIAN. 



SERMON III. 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to 
be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be 
the first-born among many brethre?i. Moreover ; whom 
he did predestinate, them he also called : and whom he 
called, them he also justified : and whom he justified, 
them he also glorified. Romans, viii. 29, 30. 

That ye shoicld earnestly contend for the faith which 
was once delivered to the saints. Jude, 3. 

I have found it difficult to obtain exact historical 
statements concerning, the beginning of the system 
of church government, known as Presbyterianism. 
For, be it remembered, strictly speaking, Presby- 
terianism is an ecclesiastical polity that is not nec- 
essarily allied to any particular system of christian 
doctrine. 

The Presbyterial mode of government has been in 
existence among some of the Churches in Europe 
since the Reformation, and there is evidence that it 
prevailed even previously to that time in various por- 
tions of the Church universal. 

Presbyterians themselves believe that the govern- 
ment of the Apostolic Church was after this order, 



64 ' WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

and they find testimony in the writings of the 
Fathers, " abundant and clear, that, the Church, in 
general, continued to enjoy the primitive Presby- 
terian form of government for at least two centuries/' 
until the time when the evils of ecclesiasticism began 
to be engrafted upon Christianity, corrupting both 
the doctrines and the government of the Church. 

You will be aided in understanding this system of 
church government, by a statement of the belief of 
all Presbyterians as to' the ministry of the Church. 
We have already learned that the Roman Catholic 
and the Protestant Episcopal Churches firmly hold 
the doctrine of three orders in the ministry: Bishops, 
the successors of the Apostles, Priests or Elders, and 
Deacons. 

Presbyterians believe the Apostles left no successors 
other than those officers of the Church variously 
called Bishops, Presbyters, Elders, Pastors or Teach- 
ers. There is only one office in the ministry and 
only one grade of that office. All the words used 
as titles of such officer are synonymous. 

Rev. Mr. Stebbins and Rev. Dr. Tully, Pres- 
byterian pastors in this city, may as rightly be 
called Bishops, as the highest dignitaries of any 
Church having an Episcopacy. 

In addition to this one office in the ministry, the 



PRESBYTERIAN, 65 

New Testament recognizes or provides for other 
officers in the Church, such as Deacons, who are 
appointed by the Church and solemnly ordained by 
prayer and the laying of hands. Their work is to 
" attend to the temporal concerns of the Church, 
especially to superintend her benevolent operations. " 
There are also in each Church " Ruling Elders," who 
are chosen by the people for the purpose of exer- 
cising government and discipline in conjunction with 
the Pastor. 

The local government of the Church is by the 
Session, which comprises the Pastor, the Ruling 
Elders and the Deacons. 

A Presbytery includes the Ministers and one 
Ruling Elder from each society within a certain 
district. 

A Synod is a larger convention similarly composed. 

The General Assembly is the highest judiciatory of 
the Church, and consists of Pastors and Ruling 
Elders elected by each Presbytery. 

Now since the words elder and presbyter literally 
mean the same, it will appear from the brief outline 
just made of the government of the Church, that its 
name " Presbyterian " is well chosen. 

Let us now, going up the stream of time, glance 
at the history of Presbyterianism as a Church. 



65 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Presbyterianism in America is older than the Re- 
public. Patriotic Presbyterians enthusiastically boast 
that it was a mighty agency, through its truly elective 
and representative system of church government, in 
implanting the ideas of civil freedom and a repub- 
lican government, in the minds of the early colonists. 

Says Dr. Wm. D. Smith : 6i The secret of our suc- 
cess as a Republic is, that we have a government, 
whose principles are the republicanism of the Bible, 
which is only another name for Presbyterianism. 
To Presbyterianism, then, as derived from the Bible, 
we are indebted for our excellent form of govern- 
ment." 

Secular historians have also acknowledged that 
there is a natural and strong affinity between Pres- 
byterianism and republican forms of government. 

Mr. Bancroft says : " Calvinism is gradual repub- 
licanism." He also declares that the Monarchs of 
England in the seventeenth century, feared Presby- 
terianism as repubublicanism. 

In one volume of his History of the United States, 
he writes : <; The first voice publicly raised in 
America to dissolve all connection with Great 
Britain, came not from the Puritans of New England, 
the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, 
but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians," 



PRESBYTERIAN. 67 

The Presbyterians of Mecklenburgh Co., North 
Carolina, in May, 1775 declared themselves inde- 
pendent of the Government of Great Britain. 

That the early Presbyterian Colonists should have 
been Republican in sentiment here in their new 
homes, was not strange, because it was " for having 
endeavored to infuse those principles into the gov- 
ernments of Europe," that many of them had been 
persecuted and obliged to flee to America. 

Persecution does not usually cure the persecuted 
of their faith. 

The Puritans of England were, long after their rise, 
unquestionably Presbyterian. But Presbyterianism 
proper, dates its origin from what is known as the 
Westminster Assembly, which convened about the 
middle of the seventeenth century. 

King Charles I. and Parliament were fiercely op- 
posing each other. Puritanism had become strong. 
Many of the clergy of the English Church were non- 
conformists. The civil war began. "The Scotch, 
with an army of twenty thousand marched to the as- 
sistance of Parliament/' and tried to persuade that 
body to establish Presbyterianism. 

An Assembly was called " of learned and godly 
divines, and others, to be consulted with by Parlia- 
ment for settling the government and liturgy of the 



68 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Church of England, and clearing the doctrine of the 
Church from false aspersions and interpretations." 

The real purpose was to bring the Church into 
closer agreement with the Church of Scotland and 
the reformed Church on the continent. 

The Assembly met. It was composed of one 
hundred and twenty divines, six deputies from Scot- 
land, ten English Peers, and twenty members of the 
House of Commons. There were a few churchmen 
among them who immediately withdrew as soon as 
the King declared the Assembly illegal. 

Those who remained being mostly Presbyterian in 
opinion, began their work. 

They believed the Church of England had become 
corrupt and was no better than the Romish Church. 

"The Assembly had before it two great tasks; 
namely, to provide first a scheme of doctrine and 
next a scheme of government for the national 
Church, which was to rise upon the ruins of the 
Episcopal Church of England." 

After four years' labor the Confession of Faith was 
completed ; and one and a half years thereafter, the 
Shorter and the Larger Catechisms were adopted, 
and all, by authority of Parliament, were published 
for public use, and an ordinance established for- 
bidding the use of the Book of Common Prayer. 



PRESBYTERIAN. 69 

" These are still the standards of faith and disci- 
pline in all the orthodox Presbyterian Churches in 
the world." 

A few years later Parliament passed an act by 
which a Presbyterian Church superseded the Church 
of England as the national establishment. The act, 
however, finally failed of execution because of dissen- 
sions and divisions that arose between the Presby- 
terians and Independents. 

With the Restoration after Cromwell, came the 
re-establishment of the English Church, and the 
" Act of Conformity " made Presbyterianism de- 
pendent on the voluntary offerings of its adherents. 
This was its greatest good fortune, and Presbyterians 
of that day might well have sung : — 

u Behind a frowning providence 
" He hides a smiling face." 

Presbyterianism, we have seen, is a distinct system 
of church government ; it is likewise a peculiar 
body of christian doctrine. The theology of Presby- 
terianism is known as Calvinism. The various 
Presbyterian organizations agree substantially in 
accepting the chief features of that system of faith. 

In the anatomical museums one may find skeletons 
of different species of quadrupeds ; for instance, 
of the horse, ox, sheep, deer, dog, and cat. 



JO WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Now while there are great dissimilarities be- 
tween these, as in the length or size of certain 
bones, there is at the same time a wonderful resem- 
blance in the skeletons. A. person not skilled in 
physiology and anatomy, might find it hard to tell 
which skeleton belonged to a dog and which to a 
sheep. 

Careful study of the skeletons would show that 
they have something in common ; certain relations 
of bone to bone appear in each specimen. 

We are searching among the dry bones : the theolo- 
gies, confessions, creeds and polities of different 
christian Churches. We find they all have creeds 
and confessions, and believe these are as necessary 
to the existence, life and growth of these organiza- 
tions, as the bony framework is essential to physical 
being. 

Governments must have constitutions, Slates must 
have organic and statute law, and Churches must 
have creeds. 

As he alone is an intelligent American citizen, and 
able to appreciate the government under which he 
lives, who knows something of the history and spirit 
of the other governments of the world, so only that 
christian is an intelligent, loyal and appreciative 
.Romanist, Churchman, Presbyterian or Methodist, 



PRESBYTERIAN. 7 1 

who understands the doctrines and spirit of Churches 
other than| his own. 

And in the measure of his acquaintance with the 
various doctrines and systems of church life and 
government, will be the ability to do effective work 
for his own Church. For ignorance will engender 
bigotry, and a bigot is a person whose social and 
religious influence is best represented mathematically 
by a minus quantity. 

Moreover, knowledge of what other christians 
believe ought, and doubtless will, make a member of 
any religious organization more satisfied with his 
own faith, and hence more earnest in endeavoring to 
build up his own Church. 

My study of the creed and polity of the Roman 
Catholic Church has had the effect to increase my 
respect for that venerable Church, containing so 
much truth in its theology, and at the same time 
knowledge of what I deem great errors and supersti- 
tions, makes me the more devoutly thankful that I 
am not a Romanist, but a Protestant. 

May we not find profit in learning that the prin- 
ciples of religious, soul-saving faith are not all hid- 
den away in the theological museum of any one 
Church ? Knowing this, that most blessed grace, 
and most comely development of character, of which 



72 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

the Apostle writes, — " Now abideth faith. hope> char- 
ity, these three ; but the greatest of these is Charity" 
shall abound in all our lives. 

I alluded to the similarity in structure of the 
skeletons of species of quadrupeds, which is revealed 
by the study of comparative anatomy. 

We have also found in the examination of the 
framework of creed and polity in the Roman Catho- 
lic and Episcopal Churches, certain truths held in 
common, which truths are essentially fundamental to 
Christianity. 

There can be no doubt a search through the Pres- 
byterian museum will discover bone corresponding 
to bone, and similarity with these other faiths that 
will astonish one who has been heretofore unaware 
of the fact. 

To be certain of this, let us inquire briefly — What 
do Presbyterians believe ? 

Now who can answer the question more correctly, 
than Presbyterians themselves ? 

Therefore I shall not ask Romanists, Churchmen, 
Baptists or Methodists even to tell us, but rather 
shall I seek for light in the Presbyterian standards, 
and listen to testimony from orthodox Presbyterian 
lips. 

The Confession of Faith, together with the shorter 



PRESBYTERIAN. 73 

and larger Catechisms, constructed by the Westmin- 
ster Assembly, are the acknowledged and adopted 
standards of doctrine in all Presbyterian Churches. 

These Catechisms, and Confession have very much 
in common with the faith of other orthodox Protest- 
ant Churches. Let me name some of the truths in 
which all agree. 

The Scriptures are a sufficient and only rule 
of all that man is to believe concerning God, and 
our duty to God; Scripture must be interpreted by 
Scripture, not by the traditions of the Fathers, the 
judgment of scholars, or the decisions of ecclesi- 
astical councils ; every man must interpret the Bible 
for himself. Likewise concerning the Being and At- 
tributes of God ; the doctrine of the Trinity ; the 
Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; the depravity of 
human nature ; necessity of an atonement by a divine 
Savior ; pardon of sin and justification by faith alone. 

Also that there are only two Sacraments, Baptism 
and the Lord's Supper, and these are efficacious means 
of grace only when rightly used, their efficacy de- 
pending entirely upon the power of the Holy Ghost, 
and the faith of the recipient. They are outward 
visible signs, signifying an inward spiritual grace. 

An intelligent Presbyterian can as devoutly as a 
Roman Catholic or Episcopalian, and without mental 



74 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

reservation, repeat the Apostles' Creed the Ten Com- 
mandments, the Lord's Prayer, and all other things 
which a christian ought to know and believe for his 
soul's health. 

I think a Presbyterian could adopt all the thirty 
nine Articles of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
except perhaps those referring to the ordination of 
ministers. 

He would of course so interpret the article about 
election as to make it emphatically and unequivo- 
cally Calvinistic. 

This sentence suggests to us what is most specially 
characteristic in the doctrines of the Presbyterian 
Church, to wit : the cluster of what Presbyterians 
believe to be Bible truths, known as Calvinism. 

The Presbyterian Church is pre-eminently Calvin- 
istic in its authorized statements of christian doctrine. 
Many of the laity and a few of its clergymen, may 
not in their private faith accept these dogmas, but 
by just so much as they depart from Calvinism, 
they depart from true Presbyterianism. Arminian 
Presbyterianism is self-evident nonsense. 

Let us see what the Church teaches in her 
standards. 

It is difficult for an Arminian to state fairly in his 
own language just what is taught concerning election 



PRESBYTERIAN. 75 

and predestination by the Presbyterian and other 
Calvinistic creeds ; therefore I will give the words 
of the Confession and the Catechism, with com- 
ments thereupon by eminent Presbyterian divines, 
premising with the statement, that underlying the 
system of Calvinistic dogma, is the proposition : — 
God is in himself, and in all his purposes and actions 
relating to his creatures, Absolutely Sovereign. 

" Presbyterians hold that God eternally foreknows 
all events that come to pass as certainly future, 
because he has predetermined them to be so. 5 ' — 
(A. A. Hodge, D. D.) 

Hence we have what are called the " decrees, ,? 

Hear what the Confession saith : 

" God from all eternity did by the most wise and 
holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably 
ordain whatsoever comes to pass ; so as thereby 
neither is God the author of sin ; nor is violence 
offered to the will of the creature, nor is the liberty 
or contingency of second causes taken away, but 
rather established. 

By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his 
glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto 
everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlast- 
ing death. The angels and men, thus predestinated 
and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably 
designed ; and their number is so certain and definite, 
that it cannot be either increased or diminished. 



j6 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Those of mankind who are thus predestinated, 
God hath chosen by his own good pleasure, out of 
his mere free grace and love, without any foresight 
of faith and good works in them, unto everlasting 
glory." 

These persons are " redeemed by Christ, and 
effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit 
working in due season \ are justified, adopted, sancti- 
fied and kept by his power through faith unto salva- 
tion." 

"The rest of mankind, God was pleased, accord- 
ing to the unsearchable counsel of his own will . 

to pass by, and to ordain them to 

dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his 
glorious justice.'' 

In the exact words of the Confession, " Neither 
are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, 
justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect 
only." 

Now if it be objected to this doctrine that it is 
derogatory to the justice and love of God, to say 
he ordains the damnation of the non-elect, and does 
not redeem them, in the same sense, as he does the 
elect, and call them by an effectual call, it is replied: 

" Since all men came into the world under the 
just wrath and curse of God, that is, since original 
-sin truly deserves punishment, it follows that the 



PRESBYTERIAN, JJ 

salvation of men is absolutely and solely of grace ; that 
God was free in consistency with the infinite perfec- 
tions of his nature, to save none, few, many or all, 
according to the sovereign good pleasure of his 
will."— (Dr. A. A. Hodge.) 

If it be said that the doctrine of election as taught 
by Presbyterian Calvinists, substantially destroys the 
moral freedom of the human will, it is answered : 

".We do not teach that God ever forces the wills 
of free agents, or induces them to act in any manner 
inconsistent with their freedom." 

It is maintained that God's purpose in predeter- 
mining all events of every kind, is not inconsistent 
with the freedom of free agents, for it is absurd to 
suppose that he who made man a free agent cannot 
govern him without destroying his freedom ;" and 
the " scriptures teach both the freedom and responsi- 
bility of man, and the predetermination by God of 
all events, even the sinful acts of men." — (Hodge.) 

Very likely many of my hearers may not see the 
logic of the quotations, and will not by reason of them 
accept this theory of salvation, still must not we Ar- 
minians admit that the faithful preaching of Calvin- 
ism does not tend to make men indifferent to relig- 
ious duties, as it most certainly would do. if they 



78 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, 

saw in it that fatalism charged against it by unintel- 
ligent controversialists. 

Let us rejoice that this magnifying of God's free 
grace in the redemption, effectual calling and certain 
salvation of the elect, is a mighty comfort to millions 
of souls, who are ''working out their own salvation 
with fear and trembling" believing that " God worketh 
in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure" 

It is a fact, that a very large portion of the Church 
here on earth are devout, conscientious, zealous 
believers in the system of doctrines of grace called 
Calvinism. That faith is inwrought within the fibres 
of the spiritual being. 

Their children are instructed therein, as they learn 
the Catechism so faithfully taught in every well reg- 
ulated Presbyterian home, and Sunday school. 

We are bound to respect the conscientiousness of 
christians, who thus openly and consistently main- 
tain what they deem u the faith once delivered to the 
saints" 

Nowhere among the Churches are the ministers 
more firmly held to personal belief and faithful dec- 
laration of the acknowledged creed of their Church. 

A Presbyterian pulpit is not long permitted to 
preach doctrines contrary to the standards of the 
denomination. 



PRESBYTERIAN. 79 

And this is consistent. The officers of an army 
must know the principles of military science, and 
keep the rules of war. 

The legislators of the people should be true to the 
constitution. The pulpit must be loyal to the 
Church that gives it authority to instruct the people. 

True a large number of communicants and a 
few clergymen, of the Presbyterian Church, do not 
believe in Calvinism ; some of them received theic 
religious and doctrinal education in families belong- 
ing to Churches holding the Arminian faith, and they 
never can become conscientious Calvinists. Their 
home is in the Presbyterian Church, on account of 
reasons other than doctrinal. 

Neither my Arminian hearer, can you and I be 
Calvinists. We should always be thinking if God, 
as Dr. Hodge says, " was free, in consistency with 
the infinite perfections of his nature, to save none, 
few, many or all, according to the sovereign good 
pleasure of his will," why did he not elect all ? 

And the devout Calvinist does not fail to make 
prompt answer in the words of Scripture : " Nay 
but. O man, who art thou that repliest against God 2 
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why 
hast thou made me thus ? " 

And so my friends better than controversy will it 



80 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

be for us who are Arminians, simply to say that one 
is no less a christian because of being a devout and 
zealous Calvinist. Mr. Froude, I think, has made 
mention of the salutary influence of Calvinism upon 
national life ; let us confess how much it has done in 
molding the christian characters of men and women 
who have rendered illustrious service in the vineyard 
of the Lord. 

The doctrine of predestination and election, in- 
volves that of the Final Perseverance of the Saints ; 
a dogma most full of comfort to the devout believer 
thereof; a faith which assures him that, "though if 
left to himself every believer would instantly and 
certainly fall, and although most believers do ex- 
perience temporary seasons of backsliding, yet God, 
by the exercise of his grace in their hearts, in pur- 
suance of the terms of his eternal covenant with his 
Son, infallibly prevents even the weakest saint from 
final apostasy." 

And so the trembling christian journeys on toward 
heaven, with a lighter heart, believing that nothing 
can separate him from the love of God. 

You have heard briefly of the doctrines in which 
the Presbyterian Church differs most widely from 
some other branches of the christian faith. 

Concerning the means of grace, the sacraments, 



PRESBYTERIAN. Ol 

Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the just penalty due 
to sin, future rewards and punishments, endless 
suffering, and eternal happiness, it does not differ 
from its sister Protestant orthodox denominations. 
No Liturgy is in use in the Presbyterian Church. 
The simple, unostentatious, extemporaneous prayer, 
is believed to be the most acceptable way by which 
to approach the throne of the heavenly grace. 

The Ministry of the Word holds the chief place in 
the public service. 

You who are Presbyterians, be glad and rejoice 
in God that it is your good fortune to have been 
reared under the influence of Presbyterianism \ to 
have been taught its solid theology ; to have become 
proficient in its habits of religious propriety ; and to 
hold fast its doctrines with a pure heart and an intelli- 
gent conscience. Let me exhort you to hold fast 
the faith you believe " once delivered to the saints," 
and " work out your own salvation with fear and 
tremblings for it is God which worketh i?i you both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure" Amen. 



IV. 
BAPTIST. 



SERMON IV. 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
and is baptised shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, 
shall be damned.. St. Mark. xvi. 15, 16. 

A peculiar people 
zealous of good works. Titus ii. 14. 

A few days ago. down in the State of Rhode Is- 
land, an incident occurred which very opportunely 
serves me for an introduction to this discourse upon 
the Baptist Church. 

Near the city of Providence, or perhaps quite with- 
in its limits appears the shaly gneissoid rock which 
so abundantly crops out and forms the iron-bound 
coast of a large part of New England. 

Down into a mass of that reck a drill was sunk by 
repeated blows from strong arms, until a place was 
found for the dull and inert powder, whose power, 
unloosed by a spark of fire, should rend the fetters- 
which held the block of stone in its native bed. 

The charge was placed \ the wires were laid to 
form the electric circuit, the key was touched, the 



86 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

smothered rumbling of the riven rock told of the 
resistless power which tore it from its birth-place, 
and the quarryman rejoiced that the work had been 
successfully done. 

That shapeless fragment will be lifted from its 
place, the sharp chisel will give it regular form, 
its sides will be polished, inscriptions will be en- 
graven upon it, and in a park close by, those who 
pass, citizens or strangers, will read what is written 
thereon, and be reminded of some of the events 
which attended the planting of the colony of Rhode 
Island, and the founding of the city of Providence. 

For on the spot whence that rock has been lifted 
up and borne away to the park, stepped from his 
Indian Canoe with five companions on a day in June, 
1636, Roger Williams. 

And who was Roger Williams ? And why lift 
from its resting place for innumerable past ages 
that mass of rock ? 

A bit of history will tell, and at the same time will 
show to whom the American people owe a large debt 
of gratitude, for his courageous advocacy and vindi- 
cation of the liberty of conscience, and the right to 
worship God according to the dictates of the indivi- 
dual judgment. 

Are you aware that the Puritans who settled Mas- 



BAPTIST. 87 

sachusetts had not arisen to the sublime conception 
of absolute freedom in religion ; and that there ought 
to be no persecution of a Church or an individual 
because of non-conformity to the dominant faith 1 

Some of the Puritans had been active participants 
in the revolution in England, when King James I. 
was beheaded, the House of Lords abolished, and 
all political distinctions were levelled. 

They had hoped and labored to establish a Com- 
monwealth that should be permanent. 

But failing in this, they were compelled by the 
Restoration to flee their native land, to find a place 
where they might enjoy political rights and freedom 
to worship Gcd. 

They brought with them to America the idea of 
Popular Sovereignty. 

As Bancroft sententiously says — " Puritanism was 
Religion struggling for the People." 

Here was the grand attempt to found a State in 
which no distinction of birth, rank, social caste, or 
wealth should be allowed to increase the political 
rights of one, or decrease the political privileges of 
another. There should be in Massachusetts, no 
King, no Lords, no Aristocracy — nothing but the 
people. Magistrates and Governors must be elected 
by the people, not appointed by the Crown. 



88 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

The Puritans hated political inequality and op- 
pression. 

Yet strange as it may seem to us, they had not 
also seen the inconsistency and gross impiety of ec- 
clesiastical or religious bigotry and intolerance. 
They still maintained the monstrous heresy, that 
'• the civil magistrate should be subordinate to the 
authority of religion. " 

The Puritans held this principle no less firmly 
than the Roman Catholics. The will of God must 
be the criterion of justice. 

But who should interpret that will ? The Roman- 
ist answered, " the Infallible Pontiff.'' The Puritans 
said, "the majority of the Church." 

And so the Church used the law and secured pos- 
itive enactments against what it deemed irreligion 
and heresies. 

"To say that men ought to have liberty of con- 
science is impious ignorance." 

" Religion admits of no eccentric notions." " God 
forbid our love for the truth should be grown so cold, 
that we should tolerate errors." 

These were sentiments of the leaders among the 
Puritans, and they were the producing cause of their 
intolerant cruelty in persecuting those who would 
not believe the prevailing faith. 



BAPTIST. 89 

And so, Episcopalians were forbidden to celebrate 
some of the special services of their Church : a sys- 
tem of church government was established for the 
congregations, which effectually excluded the Pres- 
byterian modes of discipline. 

And as Bancroft in his history, from which this 
account is condensed, says, they sought " to control 
opinion by positive statutes, to substitute the terrors 
of law, for convincing argument." 

"A particular form of worship had become a part 
of the civil establishment, and irreligion (that is any 
religion different from Congregational Puritanism) 
was now to be punished as a civil offense." 

Quakerism had arisen in England. The Quakers 
were people who were " impatient of the slow pro- 
gress of the reformation, the tardy advances of 
intellectual liberty." 

Some of them came to Massachusetts. The 
Puritans deemed their principles subversive of re- 
ligion and social order. Quakerism was declared 
to be heresy. Their books were burned ; they 
were imprisoned for awhile, and then sent back to 
England. 

That was the reception given to the first two 
Quakers who came to Massachusetts, and these two 
were women. 



90 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

" In one year," says Bancroft, " eight others were 
sent back as soon as they had landed." 

Some of these banished Quakers returned, but 
only to be whipped, imprisoned and again sent 
away. Whoever entertained " any of this accursed 
sect, were to be fined." 

"A Quaker after the first conviction, was to lose 
one ear ; after the second, the other ; after the third, 
to have the tongue bored with a red-hot iron." 

But very naturally the Quakers continued to come. 
The surest and quickest way to give vigor and vic- 
tory to any truth, or any error, even, is by evil means 
to oppose and persecute its adherents. 

The blood of its martyrs is the perpetual seed of 
any faith, or of any heresy. 

The penalties already established not proving 
effectual, the " General Court ordered the Quakers 
banished on pain of death," if they refused to go. 

Thus the Puritans, some of whom had fled from 
England because their own lives were endangered by 
bigoted persecution, became themselves persecutors 
even unto death. So strange a thing is human 
nature \ so entirely inconsistent with some of its best 
instincts. 

In obedience to the cruel law of banishment, four 
persons, three men and one woman, suffered death. 



BAPTIST. 91 

But they died maintaining their faith, and one of 
them almost with his last words asked his deluded 
persecutor : "What do you gain by taking Quakers' 
lives ? For the last man that ye put to death, here 
are five come in his room. If ye have power to 
take my life, God can raise up ten of his servants in 
my stead." 

The result proved the dying Quaker a true 
prophet. 

It is not to be supposed that measures so cruel 
could receive the unanimous approbation of the 
people. There was a gleam of light amid the thick 
darkness of such intolerant religious zeal. 

Among the early colonists was a young man a 
little more than thirty years of age. He had been 
a " godly and zealous minister of the Church of 
England." He became a Puritan, and was a fugitive 
from English persecution. " But his wrongs had not 
clouded his understanding." He discovered the 
principle that would remedy religious intolerance 
and persecution. He announced his discovery 
under the simple proposition of the sanctity of con- 
science. 

Do you ask what the sanctity of conscience meant ? 

This. That every law compelling men to attend 
divine service should be repealed ; that there should 



92 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

be no taxes to support a State Church ; that every 
form of religious faith should be equally protected ; 
that the mosque of the Mohammedan, the altar of 
the fire-worshiper, the cathedral of the Romanist, 
the synagogue of the Jew, and the meeting house of 
the Puritan, should have over them the protection of 
the government. Presbyterian, Congregationalism 
Churchman, Romanist, Pagan, Quaker, every man, 
whatever his religious belief, must have equal politi- 
cal rights with all other men, and be amenable to 
the civil law, only for violations of its ordinances. 

Said this young man, " The doctrine of persecu- 
tion for cause of conscience is most evidently and 
lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus." 
" No one should be bound to worship, or maintain 
a worship, against his own consent.'' 

The civil magistrate must have no spiritual power. 
Civil law must not invade the domain of conscience. 
The magistrates could not endure such doctrine. 
It seemed to them subversive of all religious order. 
To tolerate heresy was treason to the State. This 
young man must not be allowed to preach such 
destructive notions. 

" The ministers got together and declared any one 
worthy of banishment, who should obstinately assert 



BAPTIST. 93 

' that the civil magistrate might not intermeddle even 
to stop a church from apostasy and heresy.' ' 

The Church at Salem, where he had preached, 
renounced the doctrines of liberty of conscience 
which at first they had willingly received from him, 
and " even his wife, under a delusive plea of duty, 
was for a season influenced to disturb the tranquillity 
of his home by her reproaches." But the young 
man declared himself not subject to the spiritual 
jurisdiction of the Church or State. He declared 
himself ready to be bound and banished, and to die 
in New England, " rather than renounce the opinions 
which had dawned upon his mind in the clearness 
of light." 

Very soon the General Court pronounced against 
him the sentence of exile. He succeeded in obtain- 
ing permission to remain in the Colony till spring. 
The Court soon regretted their leniency, for " his 
opinions were contagious ; " " and it was resolved to 
remove him to England in a ship just ready to sail. ,, 
The officers repaired to his house, but he was not to 
be found. He had left his home, in the severity of 
mid-winter, and gone forth into the wilderness. " For 
fourteen weeks he was sorely tost in a bitter season, 
not knowing what bread or bed did mean/' Often 
in the stormy night, he had neither fire, nor food, nor 



94 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

company ; " often he wandered without a guide, and 
had no house but a hollow tree.' , But though he had 
found no justice among the Puritans, his fellow white 
men, and servants of Jesus Christ, he was not with- 
out friends in his place of banishment. The Indians 
whose cause and rights he had ever defended against 
the injustice of the white settlers, welcomed him. and 
he became an Apostle of Christianity to them, and 
6 ' through his long life their friend and benefactor." 

After a few months, having been joined by five 
companions, in company with them, in a frail Indian 
canoe, they embarked on Narragansett Bay to find 
somewhere on its shores a place to found a new 
Colony, which " might be a shelter for persons dis- 
tressed for conscience." 

Tradition has marked the spot where they landed, 
the first inhabited nook of Rhode Island. 

To express his unbroken confidence in the mercies 
of God, which had brought him to this spot, " he 
called the place Providence \ a name which that 
goodly city will ever retain," a perpetual monument 
to the firm and merciful piety of the noble man, 
Roger Wiliams, the hero of this little story, the 
man in whose honor that mass of unshapen rock, 
blasted from its native bed, will take form under the 
chisel of the sculptor and testify of the gratitude of 



BAPTIST. 95 

the little State, to him who laid the foundations of 
its institutions in liberty of conscience, and equality 
of political rights. 

But what has all this to do with the subject of the 
sermon to night ? Much every way ! Roger Williams 
was a Baptist ; and " he was the first person in 
modern Christendom to assert in its plenitude the 
doctrine of the liberty of conscience?" 

Well may every true Baptist rejoice that the 
founder of their Church in America has bequeathed 
to the denomination a legacy like this. 

The Baptist Churches rapidly increased in number 
as colonists continued to flock to Rhode Island the 
only place where perfect religious freedom could be 
enjoyed. 

These Churches by their influence accomplished a 
a work whose fruits we enjoy to-day. That we have 
no State Church with its manifold evils, is due not 
to the Congregational Puritans of Massachusetts, the 
Dutch of New York, the Roman Catholics of Mary- 
land, the Presbyterians of North Carolina, but to the 
Baptists of Rhode Island. 

All honor to brave godly Roger Williams, and the 
Baptist denomination of the little colony. Had this 
Church never done for the world anything beside 
giving to it, as it did, a " truth that is destined to 



g6 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

establish a perpetual religious peace," its divine mis- 
sion would have been grandly demonstrated. 

" If Copernicus is held in perpetual reverence, 
because on his death bed he published to the world 
that the sun is the center of our system ; if the name 
of Kepler is preserved in the annals of human excel- 
lence for his sagacity in detecting the laws of plan- 
etary motion ; if the genius of Newton has been 
almost adored for dissecting a ray of light, and 
weighing heavenly bodies as in a balance, let there 
be for the name of Roger Williams at least some 
humble place among those who have advanced moral 
science, and made themselves the benefactors of 
mankind. "— ( Bancroft.) 

But you are already asking, had the Baptist Church 
a history prior to the settlement of Rhode Island ? 
Let us see. It is a matter of historic controversy as 
yet, whether there were any Baptists in Great Britain 
before the wSixteenth century. 

In 1535 there were persons called Anabaptists 
(from a word meaning to baptize again,) alluding to 
the custom of rebaptizing those who had received the 
sacrament by affusion or sprinkling ; and sixteen of 
these were ordered put to death by Henry VIII. They 
were bitterly persecuted during the whole of that cen- 
tury. Cromwell in the Seventeenth century protected 
them, but they were persecuted under Charles II. and 



BAPTIST. 97 

James II. This persecution drove Roger Williams 
to America. In 1640, there were seven Baptist con- 
gregations in London, and about forty on the island.. 
Over on the continent, in Germany and Piedmont it is 
thought by some Baptist historians, there were Bap- 
tists existing under different names, down to the Re- 
formation. In the middle of the Sixteenth century 
there were many Anabaptists in Germany and 
Holland, known as Mennonites, from Menno, who 
organized the sect. And these christians were re- 
markable for their devotion to the principles of their 
order. Romanists and Protestants, even Luther 
himself, joined hands in persecuting them unto 
death. Some zealous historians believe the succes- 
sion of Baptist Churches can be traced from the days 
of the Apostles ; but the claim is not generally main- 
tained by the denomination. They do believe, how- 
ever, that the principles characteristic of Baptist 
Churches to-day, are the principles of the Bible ; the 
truths preached by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, 
and the Apostles. 

In common with other Evangelical Churches our 
Baptist brethren believe and teach those truths which 
are commonly considered fundamental to the chris- 
tian faith. 

A walk through the Baptist theological museum^ 



98 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

will discover to us the similarity of the dry bones 
to the skeletons which other Churches have mounted 
to show forth what truth they hold as vital to relig- 
ious life. 

This large christian body does not regard it neces- 
sary to have a carefully formulated creed, together 
with definite articles of religion, which shall be held 
as authoritative in determining whether one is a true 
Baptist or not. They accept no authority other than 
the Bible. They believe it to be the true center, and 
standard of christian union, and the supreme stand- 
ard by which all human conduct, creeds and opinions 
should be tried. 

The system of government in this Church, pre- 
cludes the possibility of a creed, obligatory upon all 
Baptist Churches. In church government, each sep- 
arate society is entirely independent of all other 
Churches, persons and bodies, civil or ecclesiastical, 
and is governed by its own members. 

Baptists, therefore, hold, that Churches governed 
by Popes, Bishops, Synods, Presbyteries, Confer- 
ences, " or in any other way than by their own mem- 
bers, directly and exclusively, are not constituted on 
the model of the primitive Churches, nor governed 
by the gospel rule." 

But they do not disfellowship other Churches 



BAPTIST. 99 

simply because of differing with them in govern- 
ment. They do not maintain that one form of 
government is necessarily essential. They prefer the 
congregational mode, believing it the primitive 
mode. They seek no controversy with Churches 
that choose another plan of government. 

They believe there are but two orders of office in 
the Christian Church, namely pastors, variously 
called in the New Testament, " bishop/' " overseer," 
"presbyter" or "elder," and deacons, who are 
appointed to look after the poor, to have charge of 
certain society meetings in the absence of the pastor, 
and to assist in the communion service. Sister Bap- 
tist Churches, of like faith and practice, usually unite 
in County, State, and National associations, but these 
bodies have no legislative or executive authority. 
Their only power is the aggregation of christian 
influence thus secured. Every Baptist Church is a 
pure democracy, in which the majority rule. The 
Baptist denomination in general, is a collection of 
separate democracies, each one of which is a church 
government in itself. Still while there is no associa- 
tion with power to formulate a creed or confession, 
there is quite general agreement among these chris- 
tians concerning the faith. 

Among the Northern Baptist societies there is in 



100 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

general use a form called the " New Hampshire 
Confession of Faith ; " while the " Philadelphia Con- 
fession of Faith " is in use in the South. They differ 
only slightly, — the same truths being embodied in 
each. They are adopted by individual Churches 
only for the sake of convenience, and because they 
sententiously outline Bible doctrines. 

The theology finding most general belief among 
Baptists is a somewhat modified Calvinism. At least 
the article on election might possibly be accepted by 
an Arminian. I give it: " We believe the Scriptures 
teach that election is the eternal purpose of God, 
according to which he graciously regenerates, sancti- 
fies and saves sinners ; that being perfectly consistent 
with the free agency of man, it comprehends all the 
means in connection with the end ; that it is a most 
glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, being 
infinitely free, wise, holy and unchangeable ; that it 
utterly excludes boasting, and promotes humility, 
love, prayer, praise, trust in God, and active imita- 
tion of his free mercy ; that it encourages the use of 
means in the highest degree ; that it may be ascer- 
tained by its effects in all who truly believe the 
Gospel ; that it is the foundation of Christian assur- 
ance ; and that to ascertain it with regard to our- 
selves demands and deserves the utmost diligence." 



BAPTIST. 101 

A thorough Calvinist can see the full-fledged theory 
between the lines of this article ; and very likely the 
majority of Baptist pulpits in defining the doctrine 
would do so after the manner of the strictest advocates 
of sovereign grace. Nevertheless, the words above 
given are considerably milder than those of the 
Westminster Confession on the same subject. 

There are some features in the faith and practice 
of our Baptist brethren, which entitle them to be 
known as " a peculiar people." Were it otherwise 
what reason for the existence of this Church as a 
distinct christian organization? 

You are doubtless aware in what these peculiari- 
ties consist. But see how satisfactorily, to them- 
selves at least, Baptists show that they are nothing 
less than vital principles of Bible faith, which they 
are not at liberty to ignore, — nor to countenance 
their violation by other christians and Churches. 

The denomination believes the scriptures teach 
that a visible Church of Christ is a congregation of 
baptized believers. 

Before a person can be received into the Church, 
he must give satisfactory evidence of having been 
"born again/' converted. None are members of the 
invisible Church, who are not God's children by 
adoption. 



102 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

After conversion a person is eligible to receive 
christian baptism. And baptism is the immersion of 
the believer in water, in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is believed 
that immersion shows forth in a solemn and beautiful 
emblem, our faith in the crucified, buried and risen 
Savior, with its effect in our death to sin, and resur- 
rection to a new life. We are buried with Christ in 
baptism. 

Baptism is a prerequisite to the privileges of Church 
relationship, especially the Lord's Supper, in which 
sacrament the members of the Church, by the sacred 
use of bread and wine, commemorate together the 
dying love of Christ. 

With this view of the import of baptism, it is evi- 
dent the mode is an essential element of the sacra- 
ment. 

The Baptist believes that in order to be baptism it 
must be performed by immersion. Sprinkling, or„ 
pouring, is not baptism, for to baptize, they say, 
means to immerse. 

Appeal is made to the meaning of the Greek word, 
translated in our version " baptize," and to its Latin 
equivalents, a large array of classical authorities, 
being called as witnesses, that it can only mean to 
immerse. 



BAPTIST. 103 

They also relate the circumstances of its early 
celebration, its significance as a "burial with Christ," 
the practice of the Apostolic Church, and number- 
less admissions of the point in issue, by scholars of 
other Churches. 

Now summarize a little. A Baptist maintains that 
only believers are to be baptized ; hence infant bap- 
tism is nonsense ; baptism is baptism only by immer- 
sion ) baptized believers only have any right to the 
Lord's Supper. 

How can they, therefore, consistently invite or 
allow me, having only been sprinkled, and that in 
infancy, to commune with them ? Do they keep me 
away from the Lord's table, or is it I who am 
responsible for neglect of this sacrament, having 
refused to comply with the essential conditions of 
its reception ? 

Close Communion, as it is generally termed, is 
the only logical and consistent course for Baptist 
Churches to pursue. If their premises are right, the 
conclusion is surely just as it should be. 

But says one, whose prejudices are all awake : 
Why will they not commune with those believers in 
other Churches, who have been immersed ? 

For the consistent reason that such persons have 
violated the New Testament order in communing 



104 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

with unbaptized believers, and are therefore not con- 
sidered in good standing. They do not feel willing 
to countenance such laxity in christian discipline. 

Let us honor them for stern steadfastness in main- 
taining what they believe to be a Bible precept, rather 
than criticise and censure, because they differ with 
us concerning the intent and mode of christian bap- 
tism, and believe it to be an irrepealable condition 
of coming to the Lord's Supper. 

It is said that many Baptist Churches in England, 
and a few in the United States, are allowing these 
restrictions to be ignored, but such cases are excep- 
tional, and departures from Baptist order. 

We must not suppose, these christians are peculiar 
in one or two items of faith alone. The text is espe- 
cially applicable to them, if read in another sense : 
" A peculiar people zealous of good works" That is a 
blessed peculiarity. Would it were so general, that 
it might cease to be a peculiarity \ 

Are we not warranted in inferring from our brief 
study of Baptist history that to this denomination is 
attributable, the peculiarity named. 

Zealous in all their history for freedom of con- 
science j supporters in every land of social and political 
order ; it is the only Church of all the older denomina- 
tions, Romanist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congrega- 



BAPTIST. 105 

tional or Lutheran, that has never persecuted a single 
individual on account of his religious or political 
opinions. 

Surely this is one of their joys to-day, that they 
have believed, and have let believe. 

I must not forget to mention the unwearied zeai 
of this Church in missionary labor. It has grandly 
heeded the cry : " Come over into Macedonia and 
help us/' and to the ends of the earth its mission- 
aries have gone, baptizing believers, and preaching 
the Gospel of Him who said, " Lo I am with you 
alway." 

Has not their success proven the promise true ? 
Not many years ago the grave of Roger Williams 
was opened that the dust of his body might be re- 
moved to another place. 

It was found that the roots of an apple tree 
which had penetrated the coffin-walls as they 
moldered, had followed from the skull along the 
trunk, arms and legs of the body with a curious 
fidelity. 

" It was as if to say, that the righteous are fruitful 
of good even in the dust of their moldering." — 
(W. R. Williams, D. D.) 

His body had blossomed forth in the flowers which 
filled the boughs of the apple-tree, and ripened in the. 



106 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

luscious fruit which bent the branches. Beautiful 
symbol of the " fruitage under God's blessing of the 
sufferings and sacrifices of the weary pilgrim and 
exile who there found repose." 

We cannot tell just how much of our national order 
and happiness is due to the existence two centuries 
ago, and from that time till now, of this zealous de- 
nomination j zealous for freedom of conscience, for 
spiritual life, as requisite to church fellowship, and 
firm adherence to what they deem the only mode of 
baptism, and pre-requisite of the communion. I am 
not a Baptist, neither is the larger part of the con- 
gregation of that faith ; but whatever the Church of 
our choice may be, could we not all most heartily join 
with our Baptist brother in the Covenant he made 
when admitted to the Church ? 

Do you ask what that Covenant is ? Listen ! 

" Having been as we trust, brought by divine grace 
to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, and to give our- 
selves wholly to him, we do now solemnly and joyfully 
covenant with each other, to walk together in Him 
with brotherly love, to his glory as our common 
Lord. We do, therefore, in his strength engage, 
that we will exercise a christian care and watchful- 
ness over each other, and faithfully warn, exhort and 
admonish each other, as occasion may require ; that we 



BAPTIST. 107 

will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, 
but will uphold the public worship of God, and the 
ordinances of His house : that we will not omit closet 
and family religion at home, nor neglect the great 
duty of religiously training our children, and those 
under our care, for the service of Christ and the en- 
joyment of heaven : that as we are the lights of the 
world, and the salt of the earth, we will seek divine 
aid, to enable us to deny ungodliness, and every 
wordly lust, and to walk circumspectly in the world, 
that we may win the souls of men. 

That w r e will cheerfully contribute of our property 
according as God has prospered us, for the mainte- 
nance of a faithful and evangelical ministry among 
us, for the support of the poor, and to spread the 
Gospel over the earth. 

That we will, in all conditions, even unto death, 
strive to live to the glory of Him who hath called us 
out of darkness into his marvellous light. 

' And may the God of peace, who brought again 
from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd 
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do 
His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in 
His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory 
forever and ever. Amen.' " 



V. 
CONGREGATIONAL. 



SERMON V. 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

But be not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your Master, 
even Christ ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man 
your father upon the earth : for one is your Father, 
which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters : for 
one is your Master, even Christ. St. Matthew, xxiii. 
8-10. 

Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them. St. Matthew, 
xviii. 20. 

One day in the month of September, 1620, out on 
the then almost unknown Atlantic, was sailing, a 
thousand miles from any land, a ship not larger per- 
haps than some which cut the waters of this, our in- 
land sea. 

Its prow was turned toward the West — toward the 
New World. On board that ship were a hundred 
souls and one ; men and their wives ; children and 
infants. Many days have passed since the white 
hills of their native England had faded from their 
vision, in the increasing dimness of the distant 
horizon. 



112 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Onward they sail, not knowing whether the fitful 
winds would carry them to a new home in a strange 
land, or dash their vessel upon the breakers of some 
inhospitable shore. 

For two months, and those fierce in storms, they 
plough the wild Atlantic. 

One of the company has died, and now just one hun- 
dred souls look every day to catch the sight of land 
rising out of the western waves. 

They had heard of the land called America, and 
they propose, if God will, to anchor the ship near the 

mouth of the Hudson; but through the self-will and 
ignorance of the captain, on the 9th day of Novem- 
ber they find themselves near the most barren and 
inhospitable part of the Massachusetts coast, and are 
soon safely moored in the harbor of Cape Cod. 

" The season was already fast bringing the winter." 
They had been poorly supplied with provisions, and 
the rough and wearisome voyage had somewhat 
wasted their strength, but had not impaired their 
courage. 

" The bitterness of mortal disease was their welcome 
to the inhospitable shore." Some of the men were set 
on shore to find a suitable place to found the colony, 
but were soon " tired with marching up and down the 
steep hills and deep valleys, which lay half a foot 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 1 3 

thick with snow." A heap of maize was discovered ; 
and further search led to a burial place of the 
Indians ; but they found " no more corn nor anything 
else but graves." 

And now in the shallop or boat of the vessel, some 
of them cruise along the ragged shore, " the spray of 
the sea freezing as it fell on them, making their clothes 
like coats of iron," and they "find neither people, 
nor any place inviting a settlement." They continue 
the search and after many weary days a harbor is 
found and soon the Mayflower is piloted to the 
place, and on Friday, the 15th day of December, the 
Pilgrims, men, women and children disembarked, and 
a new home was theirs. 

Mrs. Hemans, in graphic verse has given us a 
picture of that memorable event. Perhaps you will 
hear her words repeated with a new delight. 

"The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods against a stormy sky 

Their giant branches tossed. 

And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark, 

On the wild New England shore. 

Not as the conqueror comes, 
They, the true-hearted came ; 



114 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Not with the roll of the stirring drums, 
And the trumpet that sings of fame. 

Not as the flying come. 

In silence and in fear ; 
They shook the depths of the desert's gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 

Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard and the sea j 
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthem of the free. 

The ocean eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam, 
And the rocking pines of the forest roared, 

This was their welcome home. 

There were men with hoary hair 

Amidst that pilgrim band. 
Why had they come to wither there 

Away from their childhood's land ? 

There was woman's fearless eye, 

Lit by her deep love's truth ; 
There was manhood's brow serenely high, 

And the fiery heart of youth. 

What sought they thus afar ? 

Bright jewels of the mine ? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? 

They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 

Ay, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod ; 
They have left unstained what there they found } 

Freedom to worship God ! 

" Freedom to worship God ! " And was it for this 
they had left their native homes, braved the perils of 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 1 5 

an unknown sea, and the greater dangers of a bleak 
rock-bound coast ? Had it not been their right and 
privilege, in the land of their birth to serve and praise 
the Lord of Heaven, according to the dictates of 
their own conscience ? Had any power dared to 
come between the soul and its God ? 

AlaSj the history of the christian faith shows how 
prone have been both civil and ecclesiastical author- 
ities in every age, to say to the conscience of the 
individual : Thus far mayst thou go, and no farther. 
Forgetful of the Master's word, " Put up thy sword 
into its place," men in the name even of that Lord 
Jesus, have used the sword, the dungeon, the fagot, 
gibbet, and the rack, to compel men to submit their 
consciences to the mandates of political and eccle- 
siastical law. 

This band of Pilgrims had endured the severity 
of cruel power. They had known the bitterness of 
bigotry and of persecution for opinion's sake. 

Let us trace their history backward a few years 
previous to the emigration to America. That ship's 
load of souls we first saw out on the Atlantic, had 
set sail from Delft Haven, a harbor of Holland. 
But why were these English people in Holland % 
Let us see. We have already learned that the 
Reformation in England resulted during the reign of 



Il6 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Henry VIII. in the re-establishment of the English 
Church, and the dis-establishment of the Papal 
Church. But Henry VIII., though defying the 
authority of the Pope, enforced the doctrines of the 
Romish hierarchy. England was merely trans- 
ferred from the power of the Romish Pope, to the 
equally corrupt and arbitrary will of a dissolute 
King. " Death was denounced against the Catholic 
who denied the King's supremacy, and the Protes- 
tant who doubted his creed. Had Luther been an 
Englishman he might have perished by fire." After 
the death of Henry VIII., and during the reign of 
Edward VI. a truer Protestantism began to prevail. 
The combined influence of Luther's and Calvin's 
doctrines began to be apparent. Luther, as a 
Reformer, had chiefly insisted upon the paramount 
value of character and purity of conscience, while 
he was indifferent to some of the external cere- 
monies of the Papal Church, which Calvin denounced 
as idolatry. Bancroft aptly says : " Luther resisted 
the Roman Church for its immorality ; Calvin for 
its idolatry." " Luther permitted the cross and the 
taper, pictures and images, as things of indifference; 
Calvin demanded a spiritual worship in its utmost 
purity." And so the Calvinists in the Church of 
England insisted that no ceremony should be 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 1 7 

tolerated in religious worship, " unless it was clearly 
enjoined by the Word of God/' This party soon 
came to be known as Puritans. Some of them were 
in favor of immediate separation from the national 
Church ; others would remain in order to reform the 
Church. Both parties were bitterly persecuted. In 
the reign of Mary, Rogers and Hooper. " the first 
martyrs of Protestant England," were put to death. 
Queen Mary was a Romanist and the Puritans, but 
especially the Separatists who utterly denounced 
Romanism, sought safety in flight and self exile. 
On the death of Mary many of them returned to 
England. 

Queen Elizabeth was instrumental in the re-estab- 
lishment of Protestantism within the Church. Never- 
theless, with the Puritans she had no sympathy. They 
were declared more dangerous than the Romanists 
themselves. They were ordered to conform to the 
ceremonies of the established Church. Courts were 
organized for the detection and punishment of 
offenders. I thus particularize that you may be re- 
minded how great are our privileges who " worship 
God according to the dictates of our own conscience." 
It was proposed to banish them ; this measure was 
not adopted — but a law of savage ferocity declared, 
that those who should be absent from the English 



Il8 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

service for one month, should be interrogated as to 
their belief, and, if guilty of non-conformity, they 
should be put to death. — (v. Bancroft, Vol. I, Chap. 
VIII.) Many of them sought safety by flight to 
Holland. 

Near the close of the reign of Elizabeth, in the 
North of England a Church of Separatists had been 
formed by one John Robinson. They were strict 
Calvinists, in doctrine, and zealously rejected all 
ceremonies. They could not escape persecution. 
The malice of intolerance pursued them. " Despair- 
ing of finding rest in England they sought safety in 
flight to Holland. But they were not allowed to de- 
part in peace." At their first attempt all were ar- 
rested and imprisoned. Being finally released, the 
following spring the design was renewed. " An un- 
frequented heath in Lincolnshire was the place of 
secret meeting. As if it had been a crime to escape 
persecution, the embarkation was to be made under 
the shelter of darkness. After having encountered 
a night storm, just as a boat was bearing a part of 
the emigrants to the ship, a company of horsemen 
appeared in pursuit, and seized on the defenceless 
women and children who had not yet adventured on 
the surf." 

" Pitiful it was to see the heavy case of these poor 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 1 9 

women in distress ; what weeping and crying on 
every side." "But when they were apprehended, it 
seemed impossible to punish and imprison wives and 
children for no other crime than that they would go 
with their husbands and fathers. They could not 
be sent home, for they had no homes to go to ; ' so 
that at last the magistrates were glad to be rid of 
them on any terms, though, in the meantime, they, 
poor souls, endured misery enough.' ' 

Such was the flight of this people from their 
native land. 

They arrived in Amsterdam and began the event- 
ful wanderings which gave them the name of 
" Pilgrims." But they did not find in Holland a 
country which satisfied their desires. They could 
not familiarize themselves with its language, the dis- 
soluteness -of society filled them with alarm, lest 
their children should be contaminated by the pre- 
vailing vices. They were homesick with the " desire 
to live once more under the government of their 
native land." But they could not return to England 
and enjoy their religion ; to remain in Holland they 
dared not do for the sake of their children. Whither 
should they go % The wilds of America offered 
them a home. 

"The Speedwell, a ship of sixty tons, was pur- 



120 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

chased in London, the Mayflower, of one hundred 
and eighty tons, was hired in London." The two 
ships could carry only a small part of the people. 

Robinson, their leader, remained, and Brewster, a 
ruling elder, led the emigrants. A solemn fast 
was observed. " Let us seek of God," said they, 
" a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for 
all our substance." Robinson gave them a. farewell 
charge : — " I charge you, before God and his blessed 
angels, that you follow me no further than you have 
seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord 
has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy 
word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of 
the reformed Churches, who are come to a period in 
religion, and will go at present no further than the 
instruments of their reformation. Luther and Calvin 
were great and shining lights in their times, yet they 
penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. I 
beseech you, remember it, — 'tis an article of your 
church covenant, — that you be ready to receive 
whatever truth shall be made known to you from the 
written word of God." 

The two ships set sail. In a few days they reach 
Southampton, England, and a fortnight after start 
forth on the broad Atlantic. The Speedwell soon 
springs a leak. They return to Dartmouth. 



CONGREGATIONAL. 121 

The ship repaired they again weigh anchor, but 
soon the captain of the Speedwell, ''dismayed at the 
danger of the enterprise/' turns backward. The 
timid and irresolute are allowed to abandon the 
journey, and the winnowed company, in all one hun- 
dred and one souls, in their hired vessel, the May- 
flower, are again driven forth by a favoring breeze, 
out upon the ocean, in search for the New World, a 
place where they can find "Freedom, to worship God" 
—v. Bancroft, Z, Chap. VIII. 

We have already been with them on the long voy- 
age, of more than sixty days. We have seen them 
anchored in the harbor of Cape Cod, and noted their 
wanderings up and down the rocky, sterile coast in 
search of a fair place to establish a colony. They 
have found it at Plymouth. The Mayflower has re- 
turned to England, 

Ere yet they had reached America, even while on 
the bosom of the deep, a system of civil government 
had been agreed upon, and a Governor chosen. They 
were already a Church, and with the landing of the 
Pilgrims, democratic liberty, and independent chris- 
tian worship at once existed in America. It would be 
interesting to trace the sufferings and discourage- 
ments of the little band, during the severe winter 
which soon made the land more drear, but the time 



122 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

does not suffice. A glance at the form of govern- 
ment must not be denied you. It was extremely 
simple. For a long time the whole people, that is the 
adult males, formed the legislature; but after a few 
years, increase cf population led to a representative 
system. Let us cherish the memory of these men 
who founded a State upon the principles of demo- 
cratic liberty. We ought to be interested in study- 
ing the character of the Puritan Pilgrims since they 
are the ancestors of one third of the population in 
the United States, while the principles of government 
which they established, have become the foundation 
and protection of all our free institutions. 

But to-night we are more specially interested in the 
study of their religion. I have said here was a Church. 
Let me also say, here at Plymouth was the first Con- 
gregational Church in America. For this Church was 
emphatically Congregational. 

Let us see what is peculiar in the ecclesiastical 
polity thus named. Congregationalists claim, that 
their system of government is a substantial return to 
the order and practice of the Apostolic Church, 
which order had been corrupted by the tendencies 
that culminated in the papacy, and that there are 
traces of dissent from episcopal authority in the his- 
tory of every century since Christ. The two funda- 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 23 

mental principles of their government, are : (1) That 
every local congregation of believers, united for wor- 
ship, sacraments, and discipline, is a complete 
Church, and is not subject in government to any 
ecclesiastical authority outside of itself; and (2) 
that all such local churches are in communion with 
each other and are bound to fulfill all the duties 
involved in such fellowship. 

Now it follows from these principles, that " every 
company of professing christians united by covenant 
for christian worship, is a true Church of Christ ;" 
that every member of a Congregational Church has 
equal essential rights, powers and privileges wdth 
every other member ; and that the membership by 
majority vote have the right to admit, discipline, and 
dismiss members, and transact all the business of the 
Church. " Every Congregational Church is inde- 
pendent of all control from without, whether of popes, 
bishops, patriarchs; assemblies, synods, presbyteries, 
conferences, associations or councils, being answer- 
able only to Christ its Head. And every Church is 
on a level of inherent genuineness, dignity and 
authority with every other Church on earth." 

A Church has liberty to ask the advice, in a coun- 
cil of other Churches, when it wishes to settle or 



124 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

dismiss a pastor, adopt a creed, or do any other work, 
but such advice is not obligatory. 

One Congregational Church may withdraw its 
fellowship from any Church that does not hold to the 
Bible doctrines or christian practices. 

There are only two offices in a Congregational 
Church j that of Pastor, indiscriminately styled in the 
New Testament, pastor, teacher, presbyter or elder, 
bishop or overseer— and whose duty it is to preach 
and look after its spiritual concerns — and that of 
Deacon, who cares for its temporal affairs ; and both 
of these officers are chosen by the membership from 
their own number. 

All councils or associations of Congregational 
Churches are simply advisory, and have no legisla- 
tive authority. The Association of Congregational 
Churches held in our city the past week, had no 
power over any individual Church or the denomina- 
tion in general. It was simply a mutual council 
concerning moral and religious affairs common to all 
the Churches of the denomination ; whereas, the 
Presbyterian Synod — also in session at the same 
time — had authority to legislate for the Churches 
under its jurisdiction. All Congregational Churches, 
like all Baptist Churches, are pure and unlimited 
democracies. 



CONGREGATIONAL. 125 

Now in regard to the doctrines held by Congrega- 
tional Churches, at first thought it might be sup- 
posed there could or would be no creed and con- 
fession common to the Churches. Their individual- 
ism would seem to be a barrier to any unity of 
thought and expression in theology. But we do not 
find this to be the fact. " While no power can im- 
pose a creed upon the Churches, and each Church 
adopts its own formulas, yet the principles of fellow- 
ship, to which allusion has been made, in which a 
council of Churches is called for the recognition of 
a new Church, secures a general agreement in doc- 
trine." Besides this, several Synods have been 
held for the purpose of mutually adopting a general 
standard, but at the same time any individual 
Church is at liberty to reject such standard, and the 
only right in the matter that other Churches have is 
simply todisfellowship the heretical society. In 1680 
a Synod convened in Boston, declared the West- 
minster Confession — which is the standard of the 
Presbyterian Church — its standard, after having 
slightly modified it. A general council for the 
United States in 1865, declared adherence to the 
faith and order of the Apostolic and Primitive 
Churches, as held by the fathers, and substantially 
embodied in the confessions and platforms which the 
Synods of 1648 and 1680 set forth and reaffirmed. 



126 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

It is thus apparent that the Congregational 
Churches, together with Presbyterians and Baptists, 
hold to the system of theology known as Calvinism ; 
but while standing within these lines there is consid- 
erable latitude of thought' in the popular exposition 
of the doctrines of this system, so that many eminent 
Congregational divines regard original sin not as in- 
volving the guilt of men before actual transgression, 
but the hereditary corruption of man's nature ; that 
depravity is not a natural inability to comply with 
God's demands, but is a moral inability or unwilling- 
ness and aversion, such as render it certain that man 
will not obey God, without regenerating grace ; that 
the will always chooses the greatest apparent good, 
but has the power of contrary choice ; that regen- 
erating grace is certain to accomplish its object, yet is 
not irresistible. 

The doctrines of the decrees, predestination and 
election, are held in a modified sense. 

An intelligent Arminian would find little mental o* 
moral difficulty in giving assent to Calvinism, as ex- 
plained and shorn of its terrors by the larger por- 
tion of Congregational theologians. 

Concerning other fundamental christian doctrines, 
such as the trinity, the incarnation, atonement and 
the mode of divine existence, Congregationalists 



CONGREGATIONAL. 127 

do not differ from other evangelical Churches. They 
would be entirely willing to recite the Apostles' Creed, 
while believing that creeds are not authoritative 
except as they reflect the light of truth found in the 
Bible, the only expositor of a christian's faith. 

In common with most of the great evangelical 
Churches, they believe that infant baptism is to be 
retained in the Church, because it was the common 
practice of the Apostolic and early christian ages. 
Regarding the Lord's Supper, it is held that only 
persons professing a change of heart, should be ad- 
mitted to the communion, and members of all evan^ 
gelical Churches are freely welcomed, they believing 
that no Church has the right to make differences of 
opinion in regard to baptism a bar to partaking the 
Lord's Supper. 

It must be acknowledged by a candid student of 
the polity, doctrines and history of this branch of the 
Universal Church, there is a catholicity, simplicity and 
breadth in its first principles which give it some 
peculiar advantages in the matter of denominational 
relations. " Believing that the vitality of the church 
organism does not reside in the outward form, but in 
the inward substance, they are not compelled to un- 
church any body of sincere believers " who may hap- 
pen to differ from them in religious usages. 



128 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

" While they seek to conserve among themselves, 
and promote among others what they deem to be 
the faith once delivered to the saints, they teach and 
believe that God is no respecter of persons, but in 
every (denomi) nation, he that feareth Him, and 
worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." {Rev. 
Dr. Dexter, in " Congregationalism," to which book I 
am indebted for facts and quotations.) 

Now if I were to mention the principles which 
Congregationalism claims as distinctive in its life, 
and which commend it to the intelligence of the 
people to whom it ministers, it might be said that 
it is the " Policy with which the Great Head of the 
Church has connected the most remarkable displays 
of his grace." The Reformation was founded upon its 
fundamental doctrine, to wit : That the Bible inter- 
preted by sanctified common sense, is the only, and 
sufficient, and authoritative guide in all matters of 
christian practice." The Puritan Pilgrims were the 
first missionaries to the Indians, or at least among 
the first, — John Eliot giving to the red men the Bible 
in their own language. 

Congregationalism is worthy of honor, in that all 
through its history it has manifested great interest in 
founding and endowing schools and universities. 
" It was ever the custom, and soon became the law 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 29 

in Puritan (i. e., Congregational) New England, that 
none of the brethren shall suffer so much barbarism 
in their families as not to teach their children and 
apprentices so much learning as may enable them 
perfectly to read the English tongue." And it was 
soon ordered in all the colonies " that every town- 
ship, after the -Lord hath increased them to the 
number of fifty householders, shall appoint one to 
teach all children to write and read ; and where any 
town shall increase to the number of one hundred 
families, they shall set up a grammar school, the 
masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far 
as they may be fitted for the university." Very 
early in the history of the colony, the general court 
voted a sum, equal to a year's rate of the whole 
colony, towards the erection of a college. And in 
1638, John Harvard, who arrived from England only 
to fall a victim to the climate, desiring to connect 
himself imperishably with the happiness of his 
adopted country, bequeathed to the college one half 
of his estate and all his library." 

In those laws establishing common schools and 
colleges lies the secret of the character of New Eng- 
land ; but remember it was Congregationalism that 
made these laws, and true to its early faith, this 



130 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

same denomination to-day is a most liberal supporter 
of our higher institutions of learning. 

Again it is claimed for Congregationalism that it 
develops, as no other system naturally does, the sense 
of individual responsibility in private christians, by 
giving to every member of the Church an equal share 
in its government ; and also that it is better than any 
other form of government for a Church, because it 
" furnishes a more effective barrier than any other, 
against heresy and false doctrine. " Other Churches 
use the sharp force of ecclesiastical deposition against 
one who preaches heresy. This denomination uses 
the moral appliances of truth, believing that under 
God " time will bring all right and more quickly cor- 
rect error than does hasty ecclesiastical proscription." 

But the hour does not allow that I more fully enu- 
merate the commendable features and blessed truths 
zealously maintained by this honored portion of the 
flock of Jesus Christ. Its history is a part of our 
national life. Puritan Congregationalism laid the 
solid foundations of this republic. The principles of 
the New England Colonists will eventually dominate 
this western world. But a few days since, Chili, in 
South America, besought our government to make 
known to it the plan of our common school system, 
which you well know, is a legacy from the Puritans. 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 3 I 

In the hour now passing you have looked with me 
upon that memorable scene, when a hundred brave 
christian souls found a home on this continent, their 
feet first pressing Plymouth rock. 

In the nearly three hundred years since that time, 
what things hath God wrought by their faith and the 
faith of those who have sprung from their loins ! 

Well may we remember with gratitude their sacri- 
fices and emulate with zeal their unconquerable 
devotion to God and his truth. 

Turn we now to another scene. On Burial Hill, 
at the same Plymouth, in Massachusetts, in the year 
1865, a national council of Congregational Churches 
being assembled, sent forth to the world the follow- 
ing declaration of principles for the guidance of its 
members, and their fellowship with all evangelical 
bodies of christians. Let every Congregationalist 
attentively hear, that they may this hour and here, 
renew their pledge of fealty to Christ and his truth. 
Let every christian, of whatever name, be thankful 
that in this land, has been raised up by the Provi- 
dence of God, a people who honor him by loyal 
adherence to the simple truths of the Bible. 

Listen ! " Standing by the rock where the Pil- 
grims set foot upon these shores, upon the spot 
where they worshiped God, and among the graves 



132 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

,of the early generations, we, elders and messengers 
of the Congregational Church of the United States, 
in national council assembled, like them acknowledg- 
ing no rule of faith but the word of God, do now 
declare our adherence to the faith and order of the 
apostolic and primitive churches held by our fathers. 

We declare that the experience of the nearly two 
and a half centuries which have elapsed since the 
memorable day when our sires founded here a 
christian commonwealth, with all the development 
of new forms of error since their times, has only 
deepened our confidence in the faith and polity of 
those fathers. We bless God for the inheritance of 
these doctrines. We invoke the help of the Divine 
Redeemer, that, through the presence of the promised 
Comforter, he will enable us to transmit them in 
purity to our children. 

" In the times that are before us as a nation, times 
at once of duty and of danger, we rest all our hope 
in the Gospel of the Son of God. It was the grand 
peculiarity of our Puritan fathers that they held this 
Gospel, not merely as the ground of their personal 
salvation, but as declaring the worth of man by the 
incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God ; and 
therefore, applied its principles to elevate society, 
to regulate education, to civilize humanity, to purify 



CONGREGATIONAL. 1 3 3 

law, to reform the Church and the State, and to assert 
and defend liberty; in short, to mold and redeem, 
by its all-transforming energy, everything that be- 
longs to man in his individual and social relations. 
It was the faith of our fathers which gave us this 
free land in which we dwell. It is by this faith only 
that we can transmit to our children a free and 
happy, because a Christian commonwealth. 

" We rejoice that through the influence of our free 
system of apostolic order, we can hold fellowship 
with all who acknowledge Christ, and act efficiently 
in the work of restoring unity to the divided Church, 
and of bringing back harmony and peace among 
all ' who love our Lord J-esus Christ in sincerity? 

Thus recognizing the unity of the Church of Christ 
in all the world, and knowing that we are but one 
branch of Christ's people, while adhering to our 
peculiar faith and order, we extend to all believers 
the right hand of Christian fellowship upon the basis 
of those fundamental truths in which all Christians 
should agree. With them we confess our faith in 
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the 
only living and true God ; in Jesus Christ, the incar- 
nate Word, who is exalted to be our Redeemer and 
King ; and in the Holy Comforter, who is present in 
the Church to regenerate and sanctify the soul. 



134 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

With the whole Church we confess the common 
sinfulness and ruin of our race, and acknowledge 
that it is only through the work accomplished by the 
life and expiatory death of Christ that believers in 
him are justified before God, receive the remission of 
sins and through the presence and grace of the Holy 
Comforter are delivered from the power of sin, and 
perfected in holiness. 

"We believe also in the organized and visible 
Church, in the ministry of the Word, in the sacra- 
ments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, in the 
resurrection of the body, and in the final judgment, 
the issues of which are eternal life and everlasting 
punishment. 

We receive these truths on the testimony of God, 
given through prophets and apostles, and in the life, 
the miracles, the death, the resurrection of his Son, 
our Divine Redeemer, a testimony preserved for the 
Church in the Scriptures of the Old and the New 
Testaments, which were composed by holy men as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 

"Affirming now our belief that those who thus hold 
'one faith, one Lord, one baptism,' together consti- 
tute the one Catholic Church, the several households 
of which, though called by different names, are the 
one body of Christ, and that these members of his 



CONGREGATIONAL. I 3 5 

body are sacredly bound to keep ' the unity of the 
Spirit in the bonds of peace/ we declare that we will 
co-operate with all who hold these truths. With them 
we will carry the gospel into every part of this land, 
and with them we will go into all the world and preach 
the Gospel to every creature." 

" May he to whom all power is given in heaven and 
earth, fulfill the promise which is all our hope : ' Lo 
I am with you alway even to the end of the world. 
Amen. 1 " 



VI. 

LUTHERAN. 



SERMON VL 

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and 
the life : no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. St. 
John, xiv. 6. 

The just shall live by faith. Romans, i. 1 7. 

Were I a painter with the skill of a Raphael, and 
the task were given me to produce a painting the 
like of which should hang upon the walls of every 
Lutheran and every Protestant home, I know right 
well what scene would stir my soul, and add to the 
cunning of a skillful hand. The picture should be 
a simple one. Look at its outlines as I reveal it to 
your mental vision, and transfer it to the canvas of 
your memory. 

A magnificent church in the city of Wittemberg, 
Saxony ! Pilgrims thronging the church to see 
the sacred relics, and obtain a rich indulgence ! A 
monk clad in the garb of his order, with a long roll 
of parchment in his han'd ! Standing by the door of 
the church he nails the parchment to a column, so 
that it may be read by all who enter the sacred 
place ! 



140 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

The blows of that hammer shake the world to- 
day ! The nails fastened by that master of assem- 
blies are as the words of wisdom which come from 
every Protestant pulpit where is preached that 
glorious truth — "The just shall live by faith." 

Who was that monk ? What were the ninety-five 
sentences nailed to that church door ? 

In answering these questions many volumes have 
been written, and still the christian world hardly 
realizes how much it owes to the brave monk, and 
how full of blessings for millions of souls that have 
lived and other millions who shall yet live, is the 
precious doctrine of Salvation by faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

In order to appreciate the character of that monk, 
and the meaning of his parchment, let us briefly 
study " the times " in which he lived. 

Of every eminent character in history, it might be 
truly said \ he was the product of his age. We are 
accustomed to look more upon what is deemed the 
results which some illustrious statesman, warrior, 
poet, or reformer produces for his generation, rather 
than to discern what is equally true ; namely, that 
the demands of any age for such a hero do much to 
arouse and intensify capacities of mental and moral 
power, which otherwise would have remained dor- 



LUTHERAN. I4I 

mant and unknown to the world. When God needs 
a great man some peculiar combination of providen- 
tial circumstances thrusts him forth. 

Such an era had come. The light of gospel truth 
had suffered an eclipse whose path of shadow had 
passed over all Christendom. Literature, the arts 
and religion, had been at low ebb. The Church of 
which a princely line of Popes had claimed to be 
the guide and head, was chained down to a ritual 
service that was more pagan than Christian. 

There w r ere numerous evils in the Church which had 
almost extinguished the light that Christ and his 
apostles had kindled in the world. The illiteracy 
of the masses of the people, their ignorance of the 
word of God, their blind belief in the efficacy of 
priestly pardons and indulgences, the scandalous 
lives of a large portion of the priests, the avarice of 
higher dignitaries, and the vices and crimes of the 
Popes themselves, testify how terribly the Church had 
fallen from its first estate. It is matter of indis- 
putable history, that, " Pope Julius II. marched at 
the head of armies ; Alexander VI. secured his 
election by bribery, and reigned by extortion. 
He poisoned his own cardinals, and bestowed upon 
his natural son Caesar Borgia, not unjustly called, an 
incarnated demon, the highest dignities and re- 



142 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

wards." It is related that he and his father, the 
Pope, having united in the attempt to poison nine 
newly created cardinals whose possessions they 
coveted, the wine was by mistake brought to them, 
and drinking of it the Pope died, but the other 
monster escaped for the time. The cup we mix for 
others, of it we ourselves must sometime drink. 

" The evils which the Church encouraged were 
even more dangerous than the vices of the people, 
the priests and the Popes." 

The simple doctrines of Christianity had become 
terribly perverted. Belief in papal infallibility had 
subverted faith in the Holy Scriptures. Tradition 
had crowded out the surer word of prophecy. The 
papal power not only tyrannized the consciences of 
the people in their religious affairs, but it invaded 
the domain of government, and secular princes, 
kings and emperors did its bidding. The Pope was 
supreme, and he was an unscrupulous tyrant. Dur- 
ing the fifteenth century the most elegant court in 
Europe was that of the Popes. They recruited large 
armies ; H they enriched their relatives at the sacri- 
fice of the best interests of the Church ; they built 
gorgeous palaces ; " and all this while professing to 
be the humble representatives of Jesus Christ and 
successors to St. Peter. It was during the fifteenth 



LUTHERAN. I43 

century that the Church of St. Peter was built \ that 
Church of which it has been said " it is the only 
work of art on the globe that possesses the same 
species of majesty which characterizes those of 
creation.'' — (De Stael.) 

But how was St. Peter's built ? Largely of money 
obtained by the sale of indulgences. And what were 
indulgences 1 I will try to make the meaning plain 
to you. It was then and is now the doctrine of the 
Romish Church — that sins committed bring guilt 
upon the sinner, render him liable to eternal death, 
and obliged to suffer what is called temporal punish- 
ment, or in other words, those results of sin which 
are not included in guilt and eternal punishment. 
For instance the crime of theft would involve penalty 
at the hands of the law. Now in a country where 
the Church controlled the State, an indulgence 
might include the remittal of that penalty. Again, 
should a person die with a single sin upon him, 
though it might be only a murmur at the sharpness 
of the pains of dissolution, his soul could not go 
direct to heaven, but must endure for a time the 
sufferings of purgatorial fire, to be cleansed and 
made meet for heaven. An indulgence purchased 
by a sinner beforehand, could save him from purga- 
tory. 



144 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

One can readily see that among a people educated 
in superstition and taught to believe without ques- 
tion all that the Church should teach — such a doc- 
trine would be a " Bonanza " indeed to a Pope ambi- 
tious to perpetuate his name — as the builder of a 
church more grand and beautiful than any the 
world had ever known. A " plenary indulgence," 
which was the remission of all temporal punishment 
in this life and the next, was promised to every person 
who should make a pilgrimage to Rome. The city 
was thronged, and of course the coffers of the Pope 
received vast sums of money. Lord, the historian, 
says : " It is computed that in one month two 
hundred thousand deluded persons visited the papal 
city." " The vast sums of money thus brought to 
Rome, and the still greater amounts obtained by the 
sale of indulgences, were all squandered in orna- 
menting the city, and in supporting a luxurious court, 
profligate cardinals and superfluous ministers of a 
corrupted religion." 

Was there no voice to be raised in protest against 
such iniquities ? Were truth and righteousness utterly 
departed from the earth ? Were there no witnesses 
for the faith that had once been delivered to the 
saints ? Had all God's people bowed the knee to 
Baal? 



LUTHERAN. 145 

Let us see. The darkness of these superstitions 
and crimes committed in the name of religion was 
far reaching in its extent. Germany, Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden?- 
Norway, Poland, Hungary, England and Scotland, all 
acknowledged the spiritual supremacy and temporal 
power of the Church. In respect to the extent of 
dominion and completeness of its sway, this was the 
golden age of the Papal power ; but the dark age, in 
respect of the morals of the people, and of all that 
constitutes true and undefiied religion. 

Yet amid this overshadowing and well-nigh univer- 
sal darkness there had been during each generation 
some rays of light. Above the babel of discord had 
risen the clear tones of some intrepid soul whose 
pious zeal had dared to rebuke the vices of the priests 
and the people. John Huss, Jerome of Prague, 
Wickliffe in England, Savonarola, the Waldenses, the 
Albigenses, had given witness for the truth and sealed 
their faith with their blood ; for the fagot and the 
rack had silenced their brave voices in death. 

" The spirit of religious persecution, which inflamed 
the Roman Church to punish all deserters from the 
doctrine and abuses she promulgated can never be 
questioned." 

There had always been even in the darkest times 



I46 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

witnesses to the truth • " but of the great truth, that 
underlies Protestantism, they had not a sufficiently 
clear knowledge, and hence were not able to set it 
forth with adequate distinctness." (Daubigne.) Yet 
they were John Baptists preparing the way for "him 
that should come." 

Meanwhile there were other influences than those 
of religion which were beginning to awaken the 
people, and tend to a revival of personal liberty in 
opinion and in action concerning the affairs of the 
soul. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the 
nations seemed to be " suddenly aroused from a state 
of torpor and rest, and to put forth new energies in 
every department of life." This was due, suggests Dr. 
Lord, somewhat to the fact that numerous great dis- 
coveries and important inventions had just been made. 
Let me mention some of these that you may see their 
vast importance. The use of movable types in print- 
ing was just becoming general. The result was a 
large increase of books, especially the Greek and 
Latin classics and the Holy Scriptures. 

The use of gunpowder in war had completely 
changed that art, and contributed to undermine the 
feudal system. 

The mariner's compass had led in the close of the 
fifteenth century to the discovery of America. 



LUTHERAN. I47 

Commerce was thus wonderfully stimulated. c< The 
world opened toward the east and west." "The 
horizon of knowledge extended. 55 

The present system of notation in music was 
adopted, and music became more elaborate. 

The arts of sculpture and painting reached a per- 
fection, which has never since been equalled. 

There was a revival also of intellectual knowledge. 

The human mind began to "crave light and 
knowledge in all the departments of science and 
philosophy." 

All these things helped to prepare the way for the 
emancipation of the consciences of men from the long 
slavery to the Papal power. 

It has always been, and will remain ever true that 
freedom of the intellect is essential to freedom of the 
religious nature. 

It might have been supposed that the Romish 
Church would hasten with the revival of the intellect 
and conscience of society to rid itself of the " vices 
which had been overlooked in ages of ignorance and 
superstition." 

But the leopard could not change its spots, nor 
the leviathan his skin. " The reform was not des- 
tined to come from dignitaries in the Church. It 



I48 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

was reserved for an obscure monk ' to commence the 
first successful rebellion against the despotism of 
Rome, and to give the greatest impulse to freedom 
and thought, and a general spirit of reform, which 
ten centuries had seen.' " 

On the 10th of November, 1483, at Eisleben, in 
Saxony, a child was born whose history and the re- 
sults of whose life are the legacy of the entire 
Protestant world. And truly the Romanist Church 
itself has reason for gratitude that this child when 
grown to manhood dealt it such strong and resistless 
blows. His early days were passed in extreme 
poverty, his father being a miner. While yet a boy, 
he earned his bread by singing hymns before the 
houses of the village where his parents lived. At 
the age of fifteen he entered a high school, and at 
eighteen the university at Erfurt. 

A short time after his graduation his attention was 
turned to the salvation of his soul, and as the seri- 
ous minded in those days sought monastic retreats 
he took the vows of monasticism, and in the retreat 
whither he had fled for peace of soul, sought it in 
the most painful austerities, self-lacerations and 
fasting, but all in vain. His soul found no rest. 
The Vicar General of the order advised him to read 
the Scriptures and the writings of St. Augustine, and 



LUTHERAN. 1 49 

the struggling monk at last found light and joy in 
the doctrine of justification by faith. " His spiritual 
gladness now equaled his former depression and 
anxiety." 

He soon became a priest. At the age of twenty- 
five he was called to a professorship in the new 
university at Wittemberg. He began earnestly the 
study of Greek and Hebrew, that he might read the 
Bible in the languages in which it was written. His 
zeal, his learning, and his eloquence as a preacher 
attracted great attention, and he became the preacher 
for the city by invitation of the municipal authorities. 

But though a professor he did not cease to be a 
monk j and he spent his time, when not employed, 
in instructing or preaching, and lived only on bread 
and herring. In his retirement he studied the Bible 
with diligence. " One day while studying in the 
Epistle to the Romans he reached the seventeenth 
verse of the first chapter, the quotation from the 
prophet Habbakuk, " the just shall live by faith." 
" This promise which he received into his heart, 
unveiled to him more perfectly the mystery of the 
christian life," — and he ever after heard those words 
as it were ringing in his ears, " The just shall live 
by faith." Not long after he was sent to Rome on 
an embassy, and while there his eyes were opened 



150 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

to see the great wickedness of the Church. Though 
already grounded in the first principles of the 
gospel, he had not seen the folly and sin of many of 
the customs and rites of his Church. "One day," 
it is related, " wishing to obtain an indulgence 
promised by the Pope to all who should ascend on 
their knees what is called ' Pilate's Staircase/ the 
poor Saxon monk was humbly creeping up those 
steps, which he was told had been miraculously 
transported from Jerusalem to Rome." But while 
climbing up " he thought he heard a voice of thunder 
crying from the bottom of his heart, " The just shall 
live by faith." He arose in amazement, shuddered 
at himself, and ashamed of seeing to what a depth 
superstition had plunged him, fled far from the place." 
He returned to his work and cell at Wittemberg, but 
with his faith in the infallibility of the Church rudely 
shaken. 

Shortly after Leo X. became Pope, and the sale of 
indulgencies was carried on by his command all over 
Germany, in order to obtain money to complete St. 
Peter's church. To hasten the collection of funds 
the privilege of selling these indulgences was sold or 
farmed out to the highest bidders for various portions 
of the Empire. A Dominican monk named Tetzel 
appeared at Wittemberg hawking his wares, and in 



LUTHERAN. 151 

his harangues, declaring that " Indulgencies are the 
most precious and the most noble of God's gifts. 
There is no sin so great that an indulgence cannot 
remit. Indulgences avail not only for the living, but 
for the dead. At the very instant that the money 
rattles at the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes 
from purgatory, and flies liberated to heaven." 

The professor monk was horrified. He denounced 
the indulgences given by Tetzel and boldly preached 
that t( except they repented, they should all likewise 
perish," though they might have purchased indul- 
gence. The sermon was printed. Controversy 
ensued. The words of the monk produced but little 
effect save to arouse the enmity of the Dominican 
order and he was accused of heresy. (That is always 
the first weapon which contemptible souls use against 
an adversary. It requires but little wit to use it.) 

The festival of All Saints was approaching. As we 
have already seen, the city was full of pilgrims. " On 
the 31st day of October, 1517, at noon on the day 
preceding the festival, the monk walks boldly towards 
the church and posts upon the door ninety-five theses 
or propositions against the doctrine of indulgences 
and declares he will defend them. 

That monk, need I tell you his name, was Martin 
Luther. 



152 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Let us read some of the theses on that parchment 
" When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ says repent, 
he means that the whole life of believers on earth 
should be a constant and perpetual repentance.'' 

" To hope to be saved by indulgences, is a lying 
and an empty hope." 

" Those who fancy themselves sure of salvation by 
indulgences will go into perdition along with those 
who teach them so." 

Here was the commencement of the Reformation. 
Says the eloquent Daubigne, "The feeble sounds of 
the hammer were followed throughout all Germany 
by a mighty blow that reached even the foundation 
of haughty Rome, threatening with certain ruin the 
walls, the gates, and pillars of popery, stunning and 
terrifying her champions, and at the same time awak- 
ening thousands from the sleep of error." 

A storm was gathering around Luther, but there 
was no storm in his soul. He was summoned to 
Rome to answer for his heresies. By the interces- 
sion of his prince the order was modified, and he 
was urged to renounce his heresy. 

He would not retract what he believed to be the 
truth. He was excommunicated, sentenced to the 
wrath of God, and the penalty of eternal fire. He 
despised the papal edict. Assembling the students 



LUTHERAN. I S3 

and professors of the University he cast the papal 
bull upon a bonfire and thus defied the Pope. He 
was summoned before a great Diet of the Empire at 
Worms, and commanded to recant. " Unless." said 
he, " my errors can be demonstrated by texts from 
scripture, I will not and cannot recant, for it is not 
safe for a man to go against his conscience. Here I 
am, I can do no otherwise. God help me ! Amen !" 

Compelled by the danger that threatened, he en- 
dured a voluntary imprisonment in the castle of 
Wartburg, and while there he translated the Bible 
into German, and thus did more to fix the language 
in a pure and simple dialect than have all other Ger- 
man authors. 

Thus the great principles of the Reformation were 
declared. They are few and simple : justification 
by faith ; the scriptures the only grounds of authority 
in matters of religion, and that every man has the 
right to interpret them for himself; these were the 
animating principles of Luther's religion. His con- 
victions especially were fixed on this point :— •" The 
just shall live by faith." This is the great truth by 
which the Reformation was effected. 

Luther found himself in a life-long contest with 
the Papacy, and into the conflict he threw his mighty 
energies. At first there were but few to defend him 



154 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

But his weapon was truth, and he knew the truth 

would prevail. He could sing his glorious hymn, 

of which Dr. Hedge has given such an admirable 
translation : 

"A mighty fortress is our God, 
A bulwark never failing j 
Our Helper he, amid the flood 
Of mortal ills prevailing. 

4< And though the world, with devils filled, 
Should threaten to undo us ; 
We will not fear, for God hath willed 
His truth to triumph through us. 

Besides, the common people esteemed him their 
friend, believing he had been raised up to deliver 
them from the burdens which the papacy had put 
upon them. 

Soon nearly one half of Germany embraced the 
Reformed faith. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, 
the Confession of Faith of the Protestants against 
the Romish errors was read, and though rejected on 
account of the Catholics being in the majority, 
nevertheless it has since then formed the basis of 
agreement in which the Churches now called 
Lutheran have accord. The name "Protestant" was 
assumed in 1529. 

The term " Lutheran " was first 6 given to the 
Protestants, in derision, by their enemies, just as the 



LUTHERAN. 155 

word Christian was an attempted reproach, and like- 
wise, Quaker, Methodist, and many other apella- 
tions, which now convey honor upon one who worthily 
bears them. The followers of Luther to-day are known 
as " Protestants " — " Evangelical Lutherans" — and 
"Adherents of the Augsburg Confession." Gener- 
ically, the Lutheran Church is the ecclesiastical com- 
munion which adheres to the rule and articles of faith 
restored in the Reformation of which Luther was the 
chief instrument. The Augsburg Confession and the 
two Catechisms by Luther, together with the Ecumen- 
ical Creeds, form the standards of faith in the Lu- 
theran Churches. 

I can give you but a glimpse of these chief arti- 
cles. A full statement is unnecessary, as they con- 
tain much that is common to all Protestant creeds. 

" We are justified by God, not through any merits 
of our own, but by his tender mercy, through faith in 
his Son. The depravity of man is total in its extent, 
and his will has no positive ability in the work of sal- 
vation, but only a negative ability to cease its resist- 
ance. Jesus Christ offered a propitiatory sacrifice. 
The Holy Spirit works through the word and sacra- 
ments, which only are means of grace. 7 ' 

" The theology of the Lutheran Church is not Cal- 
vinistic. The Augustinian doctrine of election threw 



I56 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Luther into perplexities." He was not the first man, 
nor the last, that has been troubled over those 
dogmas. 

" The Lutheran Church does not believe in a phys- 
ical or material presence of the body and blood of 
the Savior, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
Its faith to-day, whatever might have been the belief 
of Luther, is like that of the Protestants. In com- 
mon with nearly all christians it fervently holds to 
the practice of the baptism of children, appealing for 
authority to Christ, the Apostles, and the Church of 
the first century. 

The form of government in the Lutheran Church 
is intermediate between that of the Episcopal and the 
Presbyterian systems, and it is not, therefore Con- 
gregational, although individual churches perhaps 
have more liberty than in either the Episcopal or 
Presbyterian systems. In public worship Lutherans 
are accustomed to use a Liturgy, although this is 
not obligatory, each church having more or less dis- 
cretion in the matter. 

The Liturgy in common use in this country is one 
of great beauty and simplicity. Very much of it is 
similar to the Prayer Book of the Church of England 
and the Episcopal Church • and it is not known 
whether the Lutherans borrowed more from the 



LUTHERAN. 1 5/ 

Episcopalians, or the Episcopalians from the Luther- 
ans. It is a matter of indifference. It is known, how- 
ever, that there was a most cordial sympathy between 
the Reformers of England and those of the continent, 
and several conferences were held, while the Book . 
of Common Prayer was being fixed in its present 
form. 

It is worth our thought just here to revert a 
moment to the question, how much influence did the 
Reformation in Germany have upon the English 
people in arousing them to throw off the Papal 
yoke and restore the ancient faith ? Had there been 
no Reformation in Germany, would there have been 
a Reformation in England ? We do not know. 
Perhaps the safest judgment is, that in the 
simultaneous awakening of the human intellect on 
the Continent and in the British Isles, which 
resulted in some of the inventions and discoveries 
to which reference has been made, there was an 
indication that the time to favor Zion had come. 

God himself was moving the nations. Christ was 
yet " among the golden candlesticks." Faith had 
not taken her flight from the earth. 

If the Lutheran Church had no greater honor 
than that of bearing the name of the " greatest hero 
of Christendom since the Apostles, the restorer of 



I58 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

that form of Christianity which now sustains civiliza- 
tion and which is regenerating the human race, the 
founder of the modern German language and 
literature, the first speaker and debater of his 
country, and the best writer of prose and verse of 
his age," had it no other honor, this would be enough. 
But its greater glory is the grand work it has done 
for the salvation of men. Its influence on the Con- 
tinent of Europe to-day is very wide. It has pro- 
duced the most profound theologians the Christian 
Church has ever known. It has brought under its 
sway the best elements of political and social life. 
Numbered among its adherents are more princes, 
kings, and emperors than are found in any other 
communion. Nor is this its greatest glory. It is do- 
ing a grand work in this country, its membership 
being more than half a million of souls. 

" The general integrity in business, the quiet, 
kindly home life, the thriftiness and reliableness of 
the Lutheran population are widely known, yet none 
but those who are within it can appreciate fully the 
sterling unobtrusive qualities of the heart and life 
which mark it, and which have been nurtured by the 
great communion of which they are members. " 

Lutheranism has been a blessing to the whole 
Christian world. Though it did not entirely reform 



LUTHERAN. 1 59 

the Roman Catholic Church, yet every Romanist of 
America ought to thank God that Luther was raised 
up to lift his voice against the papal oppressions. 
That the Roman Catholicism of to-day is infinitely 
purer than that of three centuries ago, is due more to 
Lutheranism than to all other influences. And that 
the Protestantism of the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, 
the Baptist, the Methodist Churches of this generation 
is progressive and promising soon to be dominant 
over the earth is due under God more to the influences 
that Martin Luther and his contemporaries set in 
operation than to all other forces that have conspired 
to give these Churches success. 

That monk nailed the ninety -five theses to the door 
of the Wittemberg church. 

The blows of his hammer awoke the religious 
conscience of the world. 



VI. 
UNIVERSALIST. 



SERMON VII. 

THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. 

And yesus answered him, The first of all the com- 
mandments is, Hear, O Israel ; The Lord our God is 
one Lord : 

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and 
with all thy strength : this is the first commandment. 

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other command- 
ment greater than these. St. Mark, xii. 29-31. 

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of Goa 
our Saviour ; who will have all men to be saved, and 
to come unto the knowledge of the truth. I. Timothy, ii. 
3>4- 

I find myself at the commencement of this dis- 
course beset by a bristling array of sharp questions, 
Among them are these : Do you presume to class 
Universalists among Christian people ? Should the 
Universalist Church be put in an enumeration that 
includes such denominations as the Protestant Epis- 
copal, the Roman Catholic, the Presbyterian, the 
Congregational, the Baptist, the Lutheran, and the 



164 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Methodist ? Is it possible for an Universalist to be 
a Christian ? Now these are not imaginary ques- 
tions, but actual ones, just such as some of you are 
mentally asking, and I do not mistake in saying that 
there is a vigorous protest in the judgments of some 
of my hearers against any statement even of the 
doctrines of the Universalist Church. The best 
answer I think that can be given to these questions, 
is that Universalists claim to be a Christian people. 
Whether they are truly so or not, it does not behoove 
you and me to say. Who art thou that judgeth 
another ? " To his own Master he standeth or 
falleth." " Every one of us shall give account of 
himself unto God." I have a very poor opinion of 
that piety which is so extremely anxious to be in- 
formed whether a man's theology is of the same 
pattern as his own, before he is willing to acknowl- 
edge him as a Christian. It would be better if 
religious people of every name could remember that 
one can be a Christian, and do very valuable work 
for the Lord Jesus Christ, though " he follow not us." 
" All very true," says the objector, " but are there 
not such vital differences between the faith of Uni- 
versalists and the orthodox Churches as to form an 
' impassable gulf,' over which Christian charity ought 
not to attempt to cross? " May I say to an Uni- 



UNI VERS ALIST. 1 65 

versalist, "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with 
thy heart? . . . If it be, give me thine hand." 
These questions will not be answered by your 
speaker, but be left to every man's judgment and 
conscience. But remember this, it were better to err 
upon the side of an abounding charity than to shut 
ourselves up in the narrow cell of sectarian and ortho- 
dox exclusiveness. 

What is Universalism ? " The term indicates the 
belief of those who hold the doctrine of the final 
holiness and happiness of all intelligent beings." 

It is claimed that this is a legitimate and neces- 
sary deduction from the acknowledged attributes of 
God, and the declared principles of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. 

Universalists believe in the infinite and immutable 
love of the heavenly Father, who will not permit the 
sinner to elude his all conquering grace, but will fol- 
low the last lost soul to the deepest hell it may make 
for itself, and will find it and bring it back to his 
presence and to the joy of the celestial state. 

" They are fully persuaded that the divine Savior 
will accomplish the object of his mission by finally 
redeeming all from the dominion of sin and intro- 
ducing them into the blessings of his kingdom." 
It will not be expected that I can in the limits of 



1 66 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

a sermon, make a full statement of the arguments 
by which Universalists establish, to their own satis- 
faction at least, the certainty of their doctrines and 
their agreement with the Holy Scriptures. The aim 
will be only to state the general principles upon 
which the creed rests, and to advance which this 
Church has entered the field of the world, and 
invites men and women to be numbered among its 
adherents. 

At a General Convention of Universalists, held in 
Winchester, N. H., 1803, a formal creed was adopted, 
assent to which is obligatory upon all the churches, 
and upon persons who desire membership in the 
Churches. Being a brief Confession of Faith, the 
shortest of any Church having a common confes- 
sion, it will be given to you entire : 

Article I. — We believe that the holy Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments contain a revela- 
tion of the character of God, and of the duty, 
interest, and final destination of mankind. 

Article II. — We believe that there is one God, 
whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally 
restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and 
happiness. 

Article III. — We believe that holiness and true 
happiness are inseparably connected, and that 



UNIVERSALIS!?. 167 

believers ought to be careful to maintain order, and 
practice good works ; for these things are good and 
profitable unto men. 

Certainly, no person, not even the strongest stickler 
for the verbal inspiration of the Bible, can disagree 
in the least with the article concerning the sacred 
writings. The most that could possibly be said 
against it is that it does not state, how fully 
Universalists considered the Bible to be inspired ; 
and the defense of a good Universalist would be the 
charge — that there are differences of opinion as to 
this among equally learned and zealous men, in all 
the denominations. The real unity of opinion 
amongst all Christian people, concerning the 
authority of the Holy Scriptures, is, their unmistak- 
able uniqueness — in the truths presented and the 
manner of their presentation. 

It must be admitted that Universalists profess to 
believe in the Bible. Their faith in it is not unlike 
that of other Christians. And they hold, as should 
all people, that the " Bible should be interpreted by 
reason and common sense, and understood according 
to the established rules of interpretation." 

The Bible has more authority than all traditions 
and the dogmas of ecclesiastical councils, and of 
theologians, that have ever been promulgated. To 



168 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

the law and to the testimony ! So insist our Univer- 
salist friends. And it must be acknowledged the 
principle is one that especially commends itself to 
every Protestant, and we shall not assert that this is 
a peculiar feature of the Universalist faith. It is 
much more pleasant to find the truths in which we 
agree with them, than to search for those upon which 
we differ. 

But as we are looking for " characteristics," we 
must mention the peculiarities of the denomination. 
Few as these seem to be, still, by most evangelical 
Christians, they are deemed very heterodox, and many 
are the good pious souls who think that to acknowl- 
edge Universalists as Christians, would be denying 
the Lord that bought them. "Let every man be 
fully persuaded in his own mind." 

Perhaps it is possible for good people to differ 
fundamentally upon subjects of great importance, 
and each have a measure of the truth, while no one 
has it all. Take, for instance, the great truth of the 
unity of God, the granite corner stone of all religions 
which are living and growing. Jew and Gentile, 
Mohammedan and Christian, Papist and Protestant, 
Calvinist, Arminian and Universalist, all say, u I 
believe in one God" 

Now it has happened that theologians, in their 



UNIVERSALIS!*. 169 

eagerness to formally state and explain this truth, 
and having in mind the different appellations by which 
God is known in the Scriptures, have declared that 
God exists in Unity and in Trinity. He is one and 
he is three at the same time. How, no man can 
know. It is a truth the mind cannot comprehend. 
Instead of leaving the subject where the Bible leaves 
it, theologians insist that one must assent to their 
metaphysical reasoning upon the mode of the Divine 
existence. Very naturally some minds will protest 
and deny the doctrine of the Trinity. Most Univer- 
salists so do. Nevertheless, candid reasoning will 
detect, after all, little difference in fact between the 
Universalist doctrine on this subject and the faith of 
the orthodox, or all of it than can be comprehended 
by the finite mind. 

Recall for a moment, the article, — * 4 We believe 
there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in 
one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace." 

Now, inasmuch, my friends, as we are unable to 
comprehend the Almighty, it is hardly worth our 
time to be disputing concerning his existence 
whether in Unity alone, or in Unity and in Trinity. 
It would be better to study other truths which 
he has revealed to us through Jesus Christ — truths 
that will save the soul. 



170 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

But you say just here, Universalists do not look 
upon the nature of Christ and His work, as do other 
Church people. They deny that He was equal with 
God \ that He was very God, while contending for 
faith in His divinity. They make as you see a 
difference between the Deity and the divinity of a 
Being. Now, believing as I do in the Diety of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, I could wish that our brethren 
were more in accord with what is the general faith 
of Christendom in the Redeemer. Still I rejoice 
that Universalists testify that they believe that " He 
is the brightness of the Father's glory," and the 
" express image of His person ; " that He is " Heir 
of all things " and " Lord of all," and that He is the 
only Savior of the world. 

Another point of difference in their creed and 
ours, is concerning the Atonement, We believe that 
" Christ died for our sins, according to the Scrip* 
tures." And that " God commendeth his love 
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us." 

They believe that " Christ died for our sins ac- 
cording to the Scriptures \ " and, also, that " Christ 
died for us." But where is the difference? One 
says for means instead of He died for us means, He 
died instead of us. The other that for means in 



UNIVERSALIS!*. 171 

behalf of \ and He died for us means, He died in our 
behalf. There is, it is true, theologically much 
difference between these two meanings of the word, 
but practically not so much. The great truth, which 
they and we believe, and in which we all rejoice, is 
that Christ died for us, the just for the unjust, that 
He might bring us to God. We orthodox have 
possibly too exclusively insisted upon the vicarious 
side of the truth, and they have too strenuously 
maintained only, that God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto himself, and hath committed to us 
the ministry of reconciliation. The safe way is to 
cling to every possible meaning that can be put into 
the words : He died for me ! 

Universalists most emphatically teach the certainty 
and the impartiality with which God will punish the 
sinner. It is, no doubt, true that many persons are 
indulging sin as a sweet morsel, delaying repentance, 
resisting the Holy Spirit and letting conscience sleep 
in the false faith that, by and by. ere punishment 
overtakes them, they will arise and repent — be par- 
doned, and so escape the penalty of the broken law. 

A falser and more fatal hope never lulled a soul to 
sleep. God hath said, " Whatsoever a man sow r eth, 
that shall he also reap." " Sowing to the flesh thou 
shalt reap corruption." " Though hand join in hand, 



172 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

the wicked shall not be unpunished." " The soul that 
sinneth it shall die." Thou canst not escape. 

Under God's government, pardon is not the re- 
moval of the necessary penalty or results which 
follow the violated law, but it is the restoration of the 
sinner to the favor of God and the bestowal of grace, 
by which only can one successfully resist temptation. 
Pardon buys freedom for him who was a slave ; it 
does not give back precious years wasted in the 
prison house. Pardon enables one indeed to love again 
that God whom he once hated ; it cannot remove the 
sad memories of an ungrateful life. 

There is need that this truth be emphasized by 
every pulpit, Evangelical or Universalist. Sound 
the alarm in the ears of men ! Awaken the guilty 
consciences ! Tell all who sin that they shall forever 
be the losers for their sin. By just so much as one 
debilitates body or soul, shall he be forever weaker. 
It is a terrible doctrine ; but it ought to be preached 
to the end that men may turn from their evil ways. 

I am thankful that Universalists do insist upon 
the truth that sin will be certainly and impartially 
punished. There is no escape from that. They 
have largely aided in emphasizing this truth. 
Canon Farrar, in his sermons on " Eternal Hope," 
gives evidence that the doctrine is being more 



UNIVERSALIS!*. 1 73 

faithfully declared in pulpits outside of the Uni- 
versalist Church. Says he : " The penalty is a 
genuine child of the transgression. We receive the 
things that we have done ; there is a dreadful coercion 
in our own iniquities ; an inevitable congruity between 
the deed and its consequences ; an awful germ of 
identity in the seed and in the fruit. We recognize 
the sown wind in the harvest whirlwind. We feel 
that it is we who have winged the very arrows that 
eat into our heart like fire. It needs no gathered 
lightning, no divine intervention, no miraculous 
message, to avenge in us God's violated laws. They 
avenge themselves." 

It is my candid opinion that from no pulpits in 
the world is the punishment of sin, in its certainty 
and its impartiality, more faithfully set forth, than 
from the lips of ministers of the Universalist denom- 
ination, who are true to their professed creed. The 
contribution thus rendered the cause of truth and 
righteousness cannot be overestimated, and the aid 
afforded in helping to stay the tide of sin in society 
is large indeed. Yes, it must be confessed that Uni- 
versalists do believe that sin will and must be pun- 
ished, and in such faith they are in accord with the 
ripest and best judgment of philosophy, of common 
sense, and the word of God. 



174 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

And now I approach a point where two ways meet, 
or one way parts into two paths, along either of which 
paths go those who differ as to the design and end of 
punishment. It is well known that the orthodox 
theories hold that punishment under the moral gov- 
ernment of God is of two kinds, or, rather, has, or 
may have, two purposes. First, it is disciplinary, 
corrective, to restrain from further sin, to warn of 
the approach of greater danger, as the pain of a 
slight burn warns not to hold the hand in the fire \ 
and, secondly, that punishment is vindicatory, re- 
tributive, necessary to magnify the majesty of law, and 
to present an everlasting example of the hard lot of 
violators of a just and holy law. " The law," says this 
theory, "knows no mercy" It is inflexible. Its 
punishments are pitiless. It is the attribute of jus- 
tice that punishes — not the attribute of love — or not, 
rather, love itself. 

Now Universalists reject totally this view of pen- 
alty. They believe that God had a purpose in the 
establishment of a moral government over men. 
That purpose is to benefit men. "Obedience profits 
him ; disobedience injures him/' God is seeking 
the happiness of his children. The law is made be- 
cause God knows that if men keep it, they will be 
happy. The law seeks his eternal good, and there- 



UNIVERSALIS! 1 . I75 

fore they say, the penalty which is a part of the law, 
cannot be other than of such nature as to ultimately 
be a blessing to the offender, by leading him to re- 
pentance and the forsaking of sin. " To reclaim the 
sinner into the ways of peace, Divine love resorts to 
a discipline so stern, severe and formidable, as the 
inveteracy of the moral disorder may require." All 
punishment is therefore remedial. 

Now I do not undertake to combat the theory 
here and now. To do so in this congregation to-night 
would betray a want of decorum of which I will not 
be guilty, believing it to be a sin to be impolite in 
even religious affairs. I will say this, I do not be- 
lieve the theory is necessarily heretical. Neither in 
my judgment does it mitigate in the least the ter- 
rors of the law, or promise any immunity to the 
sinner. 

Following as a necessary corollary of this proposi- 
tion is the doctrine which is most specially character- 
istic of the denomination, that of the final restoration 
of all souls to obedience and happiness. If punish- 
ment is always corrective in its design, therefore it 
will ultimately lead to the reformation of the sinner. 
There can be no such thing as eternal punishment. 
It is maintained that a holy God whose nature is love, 
would not have instituted an order of government 



I76 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

under which a soul could sell itself into everlasting 
bondage. He would not allow the souls he had made 
and loves, to encounter such awful danger as that. 
I think I state the theory as it is held by the best 
authorities in that Church. If it be truth, it will not 
harm you ; if it be error, your own creed, and diligent 
study of the Word will prove a safeguard against it. 

Now, as in these discourses I am seeking for what- 
soever things are lovely and of good repute in the 
various Church creeds, allow me to confess that this 
theory in the judgment of some orthodox theologians 
is not altogether wrong. Or at least, it is better 
than the once generally declared dogma, that every 
sin, however small, deserves eternal punishment ; and 
that sin by a finite being against an infinite being 
requires an infinite penalty. And I may also be 
pardoned for saying, that it is infinitely better and 
safer than the idea once prevailing among Univer- 
salists (but not now) that every soul at death enters 
heaven. 

To my mind, there is a possible via media, on which 
all will finally stand, Orthodox and Universalist, viz. 
this: "That sin must be punished; that punish- 
ment will continue as long as sin continues. If men 
sin forever, they shall forever be punished." 

Whether they will thus sin, is the point in contro- 



UNIVERSALIS! 1 . 177 

versy between Universalism and other portions of 
the Christian Church. The question is not neces- 
sarily vital to Christian character. Let us rejoice in 
the things wherein we agree ! 

Now, beside these most important and fundamental 
issues, there are multitudinous questions that might 
be discussed in this discourse, were not the time too 
far spent. Of depravity, of the freedom of the will, 
regeneration, or the new birth, the resurrection, the 
sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, church 
polity, evangelization of the world, the judgment, 
heaven and hell, we might speak at length. 

We give a passing glance. Universalists repudiate 
the dogma of total depravity, denying that " babies 
are born little devils." They hold that men are as 
free by nature to do good as to do evil. The natural 
inborn tendencies to evil habits are not sin to those 
who are unfortunate enough to be thus fettered, but 
misfortunes simply. " In Adam's fall we sinned all," 
is nonsense to a Universalist and not to them alone. 
They believe in conversion, which is " effected in the 
soul by belief of the truth and the sanctifying in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit." 

The resurrection is the calling of the soul out of 
this body into its new and heavenly body, and also 
the moral and spiritual change wrought in the soul 
through grace. 



I78 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Concerning their belief in the power of the will, I 
have somewhat to say that will perhaps astonish you. 
You know there are two theories as to the freedom 
of the will in Christian Churches. That which is 
characteristic of Calvinism, viz., the will is not 
absolutely free to act. If Calvinism means anything 
at all, it means that God wall see to it that the elect 
shall choose salvation. He so orders the events of 
their lives that they are willingly constrained to 
accept saving grace. Hence the elect will be saved. 
If Arminianism means anything, it is that men will 
be saved if they choose or will to obey God. They 
can so will or refuse. The will is absolute monarch 
of the soul. God does not interfere with its pre- 
rogative. Now, philosophically, Universalism is 
more in accord with Calvinism than with Arminian- 
ism. Says Dr. Hodge : " Of his own good pleasure 
God was free to elect, that none, or a few, or many, 
or all should be saved ; " he chose to save some. 
They will be saved. Universalism says, " God of 
his good pleasure — that means love — chose to save 
all. All will be saved." 

As an Arminian I must heartily confess I would 
choose the latter theory, infinitely sooner than to ac- 
cept the former, for it honors God more to believe 
that having power to save all, many, few or none, he 
would choose to save all. 



UNIVERSALIS!*. 1 79 

I said, philosophically, Universalism is more 
nearly allied to Calvinism than to Arminianism, but 
practically it is not so. For Universalists most 
heartily rejoice that in so many Churches a free 
salvation is preached, and whosoever will may come. 

I am not a Universalist, else I would not preach 
in a Methodist pulpit, and declare that men are in 
danger of eternal punishment. I love the souls of 
men, and would seek to turn them from sin, because 
to sin is to be guilty of great folly, and is self-des- 
truction. 

It has been intimated that belief in the doc- 
trines of Universalism is not derogatory to Christian 
character. I shall not say my brother here is less a 
Christian than I. I hope he is a better one. 

I could wish that the doctrine of the final restora- 
tion to holiness and happiness of all men may prove 
true, for the sake of those millions of souls in all 
time, who have gone into eternity terribly laden with 
the sins of a lifetime. However it may be, this is 
sure, God is doing now all he can to save us from 
sin. Let us turn from them and live. 

It is due that mention be made of the faithfulness of 
this denomination, through its press and pulpit, and 
by the votes of its adherents, to all the social reforms 
and benevolencies of this generation. In the days 



180 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

of slavery agitation it was true to liberty. Its zeal 
in the noble work of temperance might be profita- 
bly copied by some denominations that boast a 
larger measure of orthodox truth in their creeds ; and 
in charities for which, in these times, there are such 
loud calls, they do not lag behind their more wealthy 
and prosperous sister Churches. 

My dear Universalist brother, will you suffer me a 
word of exhortation ? You know a Methodist sermon 
would not be complete unless it closed with a direct 
appeal to the conscience of the audience. There 
has been a fair statement, I trust, of the fundamental 
principles of your faith. You glory in their simplic- 
ity, their harmony with what you conceive of the 
character of the Infinite Heavenly Father, and the 
glorious ultimate destiny of all human souls. And 
if the doctrine be true, it is, indeed, one that should 
bid the devout soul loudly to rejoice in the abound- 
ing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But what I call 
upon you to remember and heed is that the simple 
intellectual belief of any truth or doctrines, accom- 
plishes but little for him who thus believes and still 
less for those whom we ought to be rescuing from 
sin and shame. 

Indeed, to believe a truth and not live consist- 
ently with such faith, brings great condemnation 



UNIVERSALIS!*. l8l 

upon the-soul. " That servant which knew his Lord's 
will and did it not, shall be beaten with many 
stripes." Take heed, lest the fearful judgment come 
upon you. And how shall you escape it ? Only by 
being true to your profession. Who would deny that 
a Universalist ought to lead a life of prayer ? Is God 
the Heavenly father % Is He a Father who loves all 
His children % Is He the Author, by His Spirit of 
every holy purpose and pure desire that struggles in 
the soul ? Surely then we ought to pour forth before 
Him our praise for mercies given and beseech the 
continuance of his loving favor. One who professes 
this faith, and does not daily worship God, is guilty 
of the basest ingratitude. 

Yet, such is the inconsistency of men, that there 
might be found in this city, perhaps there are in this 
audience, many who, professing to rejoice in the 
truth of the loving Fatherhood of God, live totally 
thankless lives. In their homes is no altar of pra) er ; 
in their dwellings no closet into which having entered 
and shut the door they pray to the Father in secret, 
and He rewards them openly. Many there be, I fear, 
who are hoping for ultimate salvation, because of 
faith in this doctrine, who have not learned to love 
the assembling of the saints. The prayer and con- 
ference meeting has no charm for them. The 



I 82 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

pleasures of the world and of sense, engross their 
thought ; the insane desire for riches has destroyed 
the hunger of the soul for the better wealth of 
righteousness and heaven. Their faith is vain, I 
beseech you, my friends, who rejoice in this creed, 
let your light shine before men. Let not the light 
that is in thee be darkness for great will be that dark- 
ness. 

Dost thou believe that every sin shall surely be 
punished ; that nowhere, and at no time shall the 
guilty escape ? Flee, then, thy sins. Turn from 
them by hearty repentance, and forsake every evil 
way. That only is the way of peace, here or yonder. 
Dost thou believe " holiness and true happiness are 
inseparable?" Then divorce them not in thy life. 
" Practice good works." Doubtless, that system of 
doctrines is best and truest which naturally leads its 
adherents to do most to promote the glory of God 
by doing the most for the welfare of men. 

" Show thy faith by thy works." " Let your light 
so shine before men that others seeing your good 
works may glorify your Father which is in heaven." 
No one can condemn an Universalism which shall 
produce prayerful holy lives, and expend its greatest 
energies in saving men from sin — and fitting them 
for heaven. May God send such a spirit upon all 
the Churches. 



UNIVERSALIS! 1 . 1 83 

And do we not. my friends, each of us, this hour 
need to pray most earnestly that a new fervor of 
love, and a new life of zeal, may be born in our 
hearts ? How unlike our faith have been our lives. 
Orthodox or Universalist as you may be, has there 
not been more of profession than of work ? Waiteth 
not the Master, calling and saying, " Why stand ye 
here all the day idle ? " See, the sun yonder is nigh 
the western horizon ! It may set suddenly. Is thy 
life work even with the years already lived ? 

The Master comes soon to judge us. " How 
stands the dark account? " Shall we hear him say, 
" Thou hast been faithful?" Sad will it be from 
the mounts of vision in the eternal world, to look 
back upon a life almost wasted, whether there come 
with it the thought that probation has ended with 
time, or that a new opportunity will be given to do 
works meet for repentance. For sin, whether its 
punishment and consequences be eternal, or at last 
shall end, is the most terrible enemy of the soul. 

" Coming after us with leaden footsteps, it some- 
time will smite with the iron hand of its own re- 
venge." — -(Farrar.) '*' Be sure thy sin will find thee 
out." On the walls of thy soul's chamber shall the 
fingers of a man's hand write, " Mem, Mem, Tekel, 
Upharsin." 



184 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

But hear these sweeter words : " The Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, 
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
Amen. 



VIII. 
METHODIST. 



SERMON VIII. 

THE METHODIST CHURCH. 

And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let 
him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely. Revelation, xxii. 17. 

And the poor have the gospel preached to them. St. 
Matthew, xi. 5. 

Methodism in its infancy, was a revival in the 
Church of England, beginning in the first half of the 
eighteenth century. There was need of a reforma- 
tion in that Church. 

The reform from papal errors had been incomplete. 
The primitive idea of Christianity, as the kingdom of 
God within the soul, had not been fully restored. 
Says Bishop Burnet : " I cannot look on without the 
deepest concern, when I see the imminent ruin hang- 
ing over the Church, and over the whole reformation." 
Archbishop Seeker says : " Such are the dissoluteness 
and contempt of principle in the higher part of the 
world, and the profligacy, intemperance, and fearless- 
ness of committing crimes, in the lower, as must, if 
this torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely 
fatal." 



1 88 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Bishop Butler writes : " It has come to be taken for 
granted that Christianity is no longer a subject of 
inquiry ; but that it is now at length discovered to be 
fictitious." Were other evidence needed I might read 
what Isaac Taylor, himself a Churchman says, to wit : 
that the Anglican Church had become an " ecclesias- 
tical system under which the people of England had 
lapsed into heathenism, or a state hardly to be dis- 
tinguished from it." 

And the condition of religion in the dissenting 
Churches, among the Independents, Presbyterians 
and others, was but very little, if at all, better. Let 
me give testimony : — Methodism " preserved from 
extinction and reanimated the languishing non- 
conformity of the last century, which just at the time 
of the Methodistic revival, was rapidly in course to 
be found nowhere but in books." — (Isaac Taylor.) 

Watts declares that there was a general decay of 
vital religion in the hearts and lives of men ; that 
this declension was common among Dissenters and 
Churchmen, and he called upon " every one to use 
all possible efforts for the recovery of dying religion 
in the world." 

The Lutheran Reformation upon the continent, 
the germ of which was the doctrine of "justifi- 
cation by faith," had proved to be " more an attempt 



METHODIST. 1 89 

to overthrow the organic system of popery, than an 
evangelical revival of spiritual life in the Church." 
Undoubtedly it had done grand work in unshackling 
the minds of men from papal bondage, but it had 
already lost its moral power. 

It did not at this time have enough spiritual 
energy to redeem it from the charge of being a 
heartless formalism. 

It was also an era of wide-spread skepticism. — 
" The three greatest giants in the cause of skeptical 
errors, which modern times have produced," viz : 
Bolingbroke, Hume, and Gibbon, were extensively 
influential in their published works. 

Hannah More writes of this time : " It was a period 
when religion was held in more than usual contempt 
from its having been recently abused to the worst 
purposes, and when the higher walks of life exhibited 
that dissoluteness which the profligate reign of the 
second Charles made so deplorably fashionable." 
About this time Voltaire was predicting that in the 
next generation Christianity would be overthrown 
throughout the civilized world. — (v. Stevens, Vol. I., 
p. 76.) 

Mr. Lecky, an historian not at all partial to Metho- 
dism, declares that the doctrines which in the " eyes 
of modern evangelical Christians constitute at once 



igO WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

the most vital and influential portions of Christianity, 
such as the depravity of human nature, the lost con- 
dition of every man who is born into the world, the 
vicarious atonement of Christ, the necessity to salva- 
tion of a new birth, faith, the constant and sustain- 
ing action of the Divine Spirit upon the believer's 
soul, — these doctrines were during the greater part 
of the eighteenth century seldom heard from a 
Church of England pulpit." 

" The moral essays which were the prevailing 
fashion, were utterly incapable of transforming the 
character and arresting and reclaiming the thoroughly 
depraved." 

One of the Bishops of the English Church bears 
witness that there were thousands of his country- 
men, though nominally Christians, "yet as ignorant 
of true Christianity as infidels or heathens." 

I might multiply quotations from all classes of 
historians, and bring witnesses who lived at the time, 
and these all would agree that it was an age of skep- 
ticism, of great public immorality, of a low state of 
piety in the Churches ; and what is most lamentable, 
there did not appear to human sight any promise of 
a coming reformation. 

Surely it needed some stern prophet of God to 
arise, and " show the people their transgressions, 
and the house of Jacob their sins." 



METHODIST. 191 

It is one of the lessons of history, that when God's 
cause, or the liberties of men, need some great 
leader to recruit an army and conduct it to victory, 
a man is found. The call of God goes forth to some 
brave soul. He hears, and obeys. 

Let us find the hero for that age. Let us get a 
view of the work which under God he was enabled 
to perform. 

In the town of Epworth, the county of Lincoln- 
shire, England, early in the eighteenth century, there 
lived one of the faithful men of God, the rector of 
that parish. His home was a humble, thatched 
cottage, with rooms above and below. There with 
his wife and eight children, the youngest but a babe, 
he dwelt fearing God, and hated by the ungodly be- 
cause of his faithfulness in rebuking their sins. 
More than once the malice of his enemies had put 
the torch to his dwelling, but a merciful providence 
had averted the loss of the home, and danger to the 
lives of the inmates. But one night that most 
thrilling of all midnight cries, " Fire! Fire !! Fire!!! " 
rung out upon the stillness, and aroused the good 
rector to find his home in flames. The fire was in 
the upper part of the house, and there was the 
nursery in which five of the children were sleeping. 
Four of them are rescued ; and the family gathered 



192 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

near their burning home suddenly see that one of 
the children is missing, and almost at that moment 
they hear the cry of their six-year old boy up in the 
nursery. The father ran into the house and to the 
stairs, but they were so nearly consumed they would 
not bear his weight, and in an agony of unutterable 
woe he fell upon his knees in mighty prayer unto God. 

But the boy has now climbed upon a chest stand- 
ing near the window and can be seen by those with- 
out, his little face terrible with fear. Men climb to 
the window, and the boy is rescued, but not a minute 
too soon, for now see the roof has fallen in, and that 
nursery is a furnace of fire. 

The child is carried to the parents and do you 
wonder that the father said : " Come, neighbors, let us 
kneel down ; let us give thanks to God ! He has given 
me all my eight children ; let the house go, I am rich 
enough /" 

None but parents can have any just idea of the 
gratitude of heart which the good man must have 
felt at that hour. 

A few years passed. The boy so wonderfully, nay 
so providentially rescued from a dreadful death, was 
of unusually bright intellect, quick to learn, diligent 
in all the duties imposed upon him. At the age of 
seventeen he became a member of Oxford University, 



METHODIST. I93 

where he obtained a high reputation as a student. 
On account of his scholarship he secured a fellowship 
which was the privilege of having his expenses paid 
while engaged in further study, and soon thereafter 
he was elected to a professorship. 

Already his purpose had been formed to enter 
the work of the ministry, but he scarcely felt him- 
self worthy to take holy orders, and he so wrote to 
his aged father and mother. Let me read you a few 
lines his faithful mother sent him : 

K In good earnest resolve to make religion the 
business of your life, for, after all, that is the one 
thing that, strictly speaking, is necessary ; all things 
beside are comparatively little to the purposes of life. 
I heartily wish you would enter upon a strict exami- 
nation of yourself, that you may know whether you 
have a reasonable hope of salvation by Jesus Christ. 
If you have the satisfaction of knowing it, it wall 
abundantly reward your pains ; if you have not, you 
will find a more reasonable occasion for tears than 
can be met with in any tragedy." 

His devotional feelings increasing, he became 
anxious to begin his ministerial career. His father 
wrote him : 

" God fit you for your great work ; fast, watch and 
pray ; believe, love and endure and be happy, to- 
ward which you shall never want the most ardent 
prayers of your affectionate father." 



194 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Visiting a man many years older than himself, and 
for whom he had great respect he received a few 
words of advice which had no little influence upon 
his life. Said the good man : 

" Sir, you wish to serve God and go to heaven. 
Remember, you cannot serve Him alone ; you must 
therefore find companions or make them \ the Bible 
knows nothing of solitary religion." 

He found companions, his brother and two other 
students. Three or four evenings of each week they 
studied the Greek Testament and the classics together. 
They were scrupulously systematic in all their work. 
The jails were regularly visited and they instructed 
the prisoners, and as opportunity allowed searched 
out the sick and the destitute whose wants they re- 
lieved. 

They were opprobriously called " Bible-bigots," 
" Bible-moths," the " Holy " or the " Godly Club;" 
and one fellow, " who builded better than he knew," 
in reference to their methodical manner of life,, 
called them " Methodists." 

The little band increased in numbers, despite the 
scorn and petty persecution which was heaped upon 
its members. If you would infuse vigor into any 
enterprise, oppose it by injudicious means, About 
this time there came to the two brothers an urgent 



METHODIST. I95 

request to go as missionaries to the colony of Georgia, 
in America, to labor with the Indians. John hesitat- 
ed not wanting to leave his now widowed mother in 
her old age, but when she knew of the call of her 
sons to that work, she said : 

"If I had twenty sons, I should rejoice that they 
were all so employed, though I should never see them 
again." 

On board the ship which was bearing them to 
America was a company of Moravians. Their free- 
dom from fear in the midst of a terrible storm, that 
threatened death to the whole ship's company, 
astonished their fellow passengers, and none more 
so than the elder of the two brothers. 

As yet his religion had not cast out the fear of 
death. He found himself a child in spiritual things. 
Arrived in the colony his success as a missionary to 
the Indians and minister to the colonists was small 
indeed. We can easily understand why. " He was 
an extreme ritualist and sought to force his peculiar 
notions upon the rude colonists. He would baptize 
their children only by immersion, he would not read 
the burial service over a " Dissenter ; " his sermons 
were bitterly personal, and he' was in numerous 
difficulties with his parishioners. Very wisely he 
resolved to return to England, where he arrived in 



I96 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

bad health and low spirits. " He redoubled his 
austerities and his zeal, but was tortured with doubts 
about the reality of his faith.'' 

One evening at a meeting of a few friends in 
London, where " one was reading Luther's preface 
to the Epistle to the Romans, about a quarter before 
nine," — to use his own words — " while he was 
describing that change which God works in the 
heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely 
warmed ; I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, 
for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he 
had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me 
from the law of sin and death." 

Says a secular historian (Lecky, Vol. II, p. 607) : 
" It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the scene 
which took place at that humble meeting in Alders- 
gate Street forms an epoch in English history. The 
conviction which then flashed upon one of the most 
powerful and most active intellects in England is 
the true source of (English) Methodism." 

This zealous and unwearied man had tried good 
works, asceticism and ritualism in vain, and found 
through simple faith in Jesus Christ, the peace and 
joy for which his soul had yearned. He now became 
in labors more abundant. There was need of faithful 
preaching and pure living. For see this picture of 



METHODIST. I97 

the state of English society, by one who then lived : 
" The Lord's day is now the devil's market day. 
More lewdness, more drunkenness, more quarrels 
and murders, more sin is contrived and committed on 
this day than on all the other days of the week 
together. Strong liquors are become the epidemic 
distemper of this great city (London.) Sin in general 
is so hardened and rampant, as that immoralities are 
defended, yea justified on principle." — (Bishop of 
Litchfield.) " In the higher classes of society, the 
taint left by Charles II. and his court still festered." 
— (Tyerman.) The established Church was full of 
ignorant and most bitter bigotry, and the zeal of the 
dissenting clergy and people was at low tide. Sin 
and iniquity did much abound, but soon grace was 
much more to abound. A fire had been kindled in 
the soul of a man, the warmth and light of which 
shall shine in all lands. His burning zeal thrusts 
him forth wherever opportunity offers to preach the 
doctrine of a free and complete salvation through 
Jesus Christ. 

And he is not alone in the great work. Helpers 
are at hand. George Whitefield, one of the most 
eloquent extemporaneous preachers the Christian 
world has known, with flaming zeal begins to arouse 
the souls of thousands to whom he preaches, in the 



I98 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

fields, on the commons, everywhere that men will 
assemble to hear the new and strange story, as they 
had not before heard it. Like fire in stubble so 
spreads the increasing flame. The pulpits are closed 
against them. If these men preach they must preach, 
as did the Master, out under the dome of the 
heavens. Churchmen and Dissenters agree in this : 
that the new doctrines and irregularities (as they 
deem them) of these zealots, must be religiously 
opposed. To denounce them, to warn the people 
against them, is to do God service. Everywhere the 
new " sect " is spoken against. And yet it is no new 
"sect " at this time. Societies of believers have been 
formed, " bands" organized, but their members are 
constantly instructed to lessen not one whit their ser- 
vice to the established Church. On the contrary, the 
Wesleys, Whitefield, and all the early preachers of 
the new movement, agree that they are only seeking 
to promote a revival of true religion in the Church. 
They do not aim to establish another Church. 
They are only seeking to bring men to Christ. 
All unprejudiced historians agree that these men 
had evidently no ambitious designs to conserve. 
They were truly lovers of the souls of men. Of 
course it could but follow that when the pulpits were 
closed against them, they would preach in any place 



METHODIST. 1 99 

where people could be assembled. Hence the vast 
outdoor congregations. It was a great departure 
from the custom of the times. Says Mr. Wesley : " I 
could scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange 
way of preaching in the fields, having been all my 
life, till very lately, so tenacious of every point rela- 
ting to decency and order that I should have thought 
the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been 
done in a Church." 

Wonderful throngs of people gathered in the fields 
to hear the word of life. It is thought that often as 
many as twenty thousand would listen eagerly for an 
hour to the thrilling words of these zealous heralds 
of the cross. Great success attended the word. 
Thousands were converted and gathered into socie- 
ties. But these faithful men of God were everywhere 
spoken against. Ridicule, caricature, slander, vio- 
lence, every weapon that bigotry could invent was 
used upon them. They were in perils, in danger of 
being stoned, nay more than once they were cruelly 
wounded by brutal malice, and the authorities of the 
Church were in great measure responsible for it ; 
inasmuch as from the pulpits, and in the press, they 
were bitterly denounced as fanatics and promoters 
of all manner of heresies. Nevertheless it is certain 
that the " Wesleys and Whitefield were at this time 



200 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

doing more than any other contemporary clergymen 
to kindle a living piety among the people." (Lecky 
II. p. 610). The movement spread over the surface 
of the empire ; it more or less permeated every sec- 
tion of society. In Wales the adherents of the 
societies were numerous. In Ireland large success 
was secured. God was evidently in the work. I 
am sure it would interest you if I should trace briefly 
the growth and organic development of Methodism 
to the time when it became finally separated from 
the Church of England, and began its mission in 
the world as a distinct portion of the Universal 
Church, but the limits of a sermon will not allow. 
That is the work of the historian. Still I cannot 
forbear giving you what one historian says of John 
Wesley, the chief agent in the work. " Beyond all 
other men it was John Wesley to whom this work 
was due. Few things in ecclesiastical history are 
more striking than the energy and success with which 
he propagated his opinions. He was gifted with a 
frame of iron and with spirits that never flagged. 
He lived eighty-seven years and continued his efforts 
to the very close. He preached usually at five 
o'clock in the morning. When he was eighty-five he 
once delivered eighty sermons in eight weeks. In 
the very last year of his life he went on a missionary 



METHODIST. 20 1 

journey to Scotland, and on one occasion traveled 
seventy miles in a single day. During the greater 
part of his career he was accustomed to preach about 
eight hundred sermons a year, and it was computed 
that in the fifty years of his itinerant life he traveled 
a quarter of a million miles, and preached more 
than forty thousand sermons, 5 ' — (Lecky, II. p. 682-3) 

Surely my hearers, whatever be your opinion of 
Methodism itself, you can but acknowledge that its 
founder was one of the most remarkable men who 
have ever lived to bless the world. Remarks the same 
author : " He had a wider constructive influence in the 
sphere of practical religion than any other man who 
has appeared since the sixteenth century, (p. 687.) 

" A greater poet may arise than Homer or Milton, 
a greater theologian than Calvin, a greater philosopher 
than Bacon, a greater dramatist than any of ancient 
or modern fame : but a more distinguished revivalist 
of the Churches than John Wesley, never." — (Dr. 
Dobbin.) "He was a man" says Lord Macaulay, 
"whose eloquence and logical acuteness might have 
rendered him eminent in literature, whose genius 
for government was not inferior to that of Richelieu, 
and who devoted all his powers, in defiance of 
obloquy and derision, to what he sincerely considered 
the highest good of mankind.'* 



202 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

If you ask why so much time has been given to 
this outline history of the man whose honor and 
glory it is to have founded Methodism, the answer 
is, if we would rightly understand how great are the 
privileges, and how blessed the influences which are 
given forth from the broad and deep stream of relig- 
ious life, known as Methodism, we must first have 
stood amid the rocky and desert wastes of the 
eighteenth century skepticism and immorality, and 
have seen the man of God, whose hand smote the 
rock whence came the waters forth, a river of life, to 
thousands of his own day, and to millions then un- 
born. Is it not true, my hearers, that but few are 
present to-night in this audience who have not in 
some measure been blessed by the direct or indirect 
influence of the Methodist Church. Through its 
ministry you were converted ; in the use of its ordi- 
nances you have been kept in the way of life, and in 
its fellowship you hope to die. It is not needful that 
you be reminded of its doctrine, polity or history, in 
order that your love for the Church may be increased. 

Still for you and any of the congregation to-night 
who are not adherents of its faith, there may be profit 
in hearing somewhat of the doctrines and work of 
this branch of the Universal Church. 

Toward the close of John Wesley's life he wrote in 



METHODIST. 203 

his journal : " Near fifty years ago, a great and good 
man, Dr. Potter, then Archbishop of Canterbury, 
gave me an advice for which I have ever since had 
occasion to bless God. ' If you desire/ said the 
Archbishop, ' to be extensively useful, do not spend 
your time and strength in contending for or against 
such things as are of a disputable nature, but in tes- 
tifying against open notorious vice and in promoting 
real essential holiness.' " 

And adds Mr. Wesley, as though speaking to every 
Methodist, through all time : " Let us keep to this, 
leaving a thousand disputable points to those that 
have no better business than to toss the ball of con- 
troversy to and fro. Let us keep close to our point. 
Let us bear a faithful testimony in our several stations 
against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness, and 
with all our might recommend that inward and out- 
ward holiness without which no man shall see the 
Lord." 

Now I hesitate not to affirm that Methodism, true 
to this admonition of its founder, has been faithful in 
its testimony against sin, and in warning men to 
"flee from the wrath to come." 

It has not wasted its energies, by contending in its 
pulpits for the unimportant "sibboleths " and " shibbo- 
leths " of human dogma, but rather has sought to keep 



204 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

the faith of men right by making their hearts pure. 
It has had no time to dispute as to the mode of bap- 
tism, the number of the elect, the apostolic succes- 
sion, the real presence, of the proper form of church 
government. It has deemed the " faith once de- 
livered to the saints " to be simply the grand gospel 
truth, that Jesus Christ came " to seek and to save that 
which was lost." And so, from the time of Wesley till 
now, the only terms of admission into the society as 
a probationer, has been " a desire " on the part of 
the applicant " to flee from the wrath to come," and 
for a long time the only requisites for full admission 
were what are known as the "General Rules/' which 
refer more to conduct than to doctrines. The 
abridgment of the thirty-nine articles of the Estab- 
lished Church of England, which Wesley prepared, 
for the Methodist Episcopal Church in America were 
not "obligatory symbols, to be subscribed to, but were 
merely quoted as an indicative standard of the best 
theological opinion. And members of the Church 
were not to be amenable for their individual opinions, 
but only for making strife and trouble in the denom- 
ination by them." — (Dr. Stevens.) 

Says this great historian of Methodism : " It can- 
not be questioned that John Wesley was not only 
immeasurably in advance of his own age, but also far 
in advance of ours in 'evangelical liberality. > " 



METHODIST. 20$ 

Yet notwithstanding this apparent neglect of dog- 
matic faith, the frame work of the christian system, 
the Methodist Church has never been troubled by- 
heresies in its midst. The secret of this freedom is 
the great truth, that if the heart be kept pure and 
the life active in religious labor, there is no danger 
that a Church or an individual will go astray from 
the few and simple fundamental principles of the 
gospel of Jesus Christ. These are so consonant 
with the purest intuitions and instincts of humanity, 
that a man cannot be false to them unless he has 
first been untrue to his conscience, and has thus 
perverted his moral judgments. 

And of all the many thousands who have gone 
out from the Methodist Church to find a religious 
home in other christian organizations, very few 
indeed, have departed from us because of a change 
in their belief. Other motives have led to the 
result. 

In no other Church on earth is there such general 
agreement as to the principles of faith which in fact 
make up the creed of the Church. We are at one with 
ourselves, and in unison with all other Christians 
concerning the granite truths of Christianity. And 
this harmony has been secured more by the practice 
of " good works " and emphasizing the simple truths 



206 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

of the gospel, than by the preaching of dogmatic 
theology. I repeat, and desire you to remember, that 
Methodism was not a new theological system, but a 
revival of spiritual life and godliness; a "concern 
as to those doctrines only which are essential to 
personal religion." A brief epitome of its creed 
would be, — All men are sinners, and in danger 
of eternal death, but Jesus Christ died for all, and 
every man may be saved if he will repent and be 
converted. And every man can repent. — This is 
its Arminianism. Its theology is founded not on the 
Absolute Sovereignty of God, but on His Eternal 
Fatherhood ; and in the first fifty years of its ministry 
here in America, it constantly proclaimed the glorious 
news of free salvation, to men over whom the 
influence of the preaching of the divine decrees, so 
called, had proven anything but salutary ; and it 
awoke them to repentance and a new life. Hence its 
remarkable success in the early days of our Republic. 
Men would receive a gospel which so emphasized 
the love of the Heavenly Father, and the universal 
redemption of the human race, in the Atonement of 
Jesus Christ. They could believe that God is an Abso- 
lute Sovereign, infinite in wisdom, oni7iipotent in power, 
but using his wisdom a?id exercisi?ig his power under 
the control of perfect love. 



METHODIST. 207 

Now while this sermon is one of the series "What 
Christians Believe," and therefore you might rightly 
judge that it ought to say more about what we be- 
lieve, than what we claim to have done in the world, 
allow me to suggest as explanatory, that in this case 
of my own Church, I am heeding the injunction of 
the Apostle and showing you our faith by our works. 

Methodism has been most aptly characterized as 
" Christianity in earnest" If you doubt that look at 
its fruits. Says Coleridge a bitter opponent of the 
system : " That it ever made or tends to make a 
Christian I doubt, though it has been the occasion, 
and even cause> of turning thousands from their evil 
deeds, and that it has made, and tends to make, bad 
and mischievcus men peaceable and profitable 
neighbors and citizens, I delight in avowing." Surely 
one might suspect that such a reformation as that 
was quite a step toward the high standard of a chris- 
tian life. 

An eminent modern English Historian, Mr. Lecky 
declares that it effected a great moral revolution in 
England, exercising its deepest influence over the 
lower and middle classes, and " planted a fervid and 
enduring religious sentiment in the midst of the most 
brutal and most neglected portions of the popula- 



208 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

Similar work has been accomplished in this land 
through the agency of this denomination. Indeed so 
successful has been the Methodist Church, in gather- 
ing within its pale the masses of the common people, 
that it has come to be almost a stereotyped and patron- 
izing remark which some snobbish Christians make — 
"Ah yes, the Methodist Church will do well enough for 
the poor." But meanwhile Methodism rejoicingly goes 
on its way, remembering that one of the great evi- 
dences which Jesus sent by John's disciples to their 
master, who had sought from Christ the signs that 
his gospel was from above,— one of the greatest, if 
not the greatest, was " Unto the poor the gospel 
is preached. , ' God only knows what influences 
would have saved the uncared-for millions of this 
land, had not Methodism carried the gospel unto the 
poor. 

The taunt is unchristian and un-American, and 
what may seem to a proud soul the humility of the 
Church is its highest possible glory. 

Methodism obtained quite a foothold in America 
before the Revolution, and in common with other 
denominations it suffered much loss of its power, 
during the long strife, owing to the unsettled condi- 
tion of society. But when the war had closed and 
prosperity returned, a new era was before it. Was 



METHODIST. 209 

there not something providential in the. fact of its 
itinerant ministry ? 

Hear ! Previously to 1790, the center of popula- 
tion in America was east of the longitude of Wash- 
ington. In 1820, it was seventy-two miles west. In 
1830, one hundred and eight miles, and so on to the 
present time, westward has rolled the wave of popu- 
lation. The great West was to be entered and to 
become the seat of empire. Do you not see that 
the settled ministries of the other Churches were ill 
prepared to meet the wants of a moving population. 
The new world needed a ministry that could itinerate 
with the people, keeping full abreast the tide of 
emigration. 

Says one who was long a Bishop of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church : " I bear my testimony that in 
one of the great States of the West, where I labored, 
I never could get ahead of the Methodist preacher. 
I never entered into the wild fastnesses of Kentucky, 
but I found a Methodist preacher had gone there 
before me with his saddle-bags ; and I never found 
myself down upon one of the villages of the Ohio 
or Mississippi, but my eyes were greeted by the 
sight of the small, humble Methodist meeting-house. 

Methodism has been an evangel to the poor, and 
it may take up to-day the language of her Lord 



210 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

without irreverence, and say : ' The spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor.' " 

And so, whatever may be your opinion as to the 
wisdom and efficiency of the itinerant system of 
ministry now, in a more settled and permanent popu- 
lation, you can but acknowledge that no other 
scheme could have been so wondrously successful 
in keeping the religious tide even with the wave of 
population that moved and is moving westward still. 

We take another glance at the condition of society 
just following the Revolution, and we are more fully 
than before convinced that God was in this movement 
called Methodism. It is well known that skepticism 
is always at flood tide in any country, just after a 
great war. "The practical suspension of the Deca- 
logue," which war has been well described as being, 
brings a torrent of vices upon a people, and vice in 
the heart and life, is the prolific source of infidelity. 
There was much of it immediately following the Rev- 
olution. How should the tide be stayed ? Never has 
it been, or will it successfully be resisted, except by 
the faithful preaching of the simple doctrines of the 
gospel, not in a dogmatic or polemic manner, but 
straight home to the guilty heart. So preaching 
went forth the early Methodist itinerants. So preach- 



METHODIST. 211 

ingthey won men from unbelief, and they were saved 
by the blood of the atonement. And now as then, 
the great specific for an apparent and threatening 
unbelief is the faithfulness of the pulpit to the vital 
doctrines of experimental godliness. A gospel that 
saves men from vice will commend itself even to the 
prejudiced intellect of educated unbelief. 

May we not, in view of its past history, justly claim 
that the greatest characteristic of Methodism is its 
missionary spirit ? And what it is now doing in this 
respect, also declares how well it understands and 
exemplifies the motto of its illustrious founder, 
"The world is my parish." For see, it has belted 
the globe with its circuits and stations, mapped out 
in every quarter of the earth, and all the great islands 
of the sea, and the circuit rider does his work under 
a never-setting sun. How well it has obeyed the 
command, " Go ye into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature," may be inferred from the 
fact that its missions " enrol a larger number of 
converts from heathenism than all other Protestant 
missions combined." — (Dr. Stevens in* History of 
Methodism, I. 34.) 

Nor has it neglected the heathen at home, or for- 
gotten those of every language who have come to our 
land to find a home under religious institutions. For 



212 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

already the great Chinese problem is being solved by 
the unpretentious but persecuted labors of our mis- 
sion to the Chinese in San Francisco, through which 
efforts they are made good citizens ; and also by our 
domestic missions, to others among us, who are des- 
titute of the gospel, and notably so, among the 
Freedmen of the South. 

Thus feeding others it is itself fed, for "The liberal 
soul shall be made fat." 

Attending the life of every man there is what 
may be called an unconscious influence, which works 
for good or ill upon all with whom he associates. 
It is the mighty force, which emanates from character, 
and its power is resistless. So every Church has 
its individuality, its character, and unconsciously to 
its own members it largely modifies the belief and 
religious life of all other Churches. 

Now providentially or otherwise, the Methodist 
Church has exercised an immeasurable influence over 
other denominations. It will not by an intelligent 
hearer be considered boastful, nor a discourtesy to 
any other creed, for me to remind you of what I believe 
to be the truth, that while the preaching of the free 
gospel of our Arminian faith, has not blotted out the 
creed of Calvinism from any of the sister Churches, 
nor perhaps destroyed the faith of their pulpits in the 



METHODIST. 213 

divine decrees, it has at least silenced those pulpits 
so far as the preaching of genuine Calvinism is con- 
cerned, and a census of all the Churches to-day, Pro- 
testant, Catholic and Reformed, would reveal that 
Arminianism is the belief of the vast majority of 
Christians. So triumphs the truth as it is in Jesus 
Christ. You may look again and discover how in 
modes of church work, the zealous evangelistic sys- 
tem, of which early and modern Methodism is a 
good illustration has been patterned by Churches of 
other names. Nor must it be forgotten that the Sun- 
day School idea originated with the Methodists of 
England ; Rowland Hill organizing the first Sunday 
School ever held in London, and Bishop Asbury, in 
in the year 1786, beginning them in the United 
States. It would be honor enough for one Church 
in America to have instituted a fcrm of church labor 
which has proven so great an agency in bringing the 
youth into the Church. But rejoicing let us always 
remember, " It is God that worketh in us, to will and 
to do of his good pleasure." 

But I hasten to declare what is patent to all that 
know our history, that Methodism has been a vast 
recruiting camp for other Churches. I do not mean 
that other Christian denominations have tried to in- 
duce Methodist people to leave their own humble 



214 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

home and dwell in their goodly palaces. Not this \ 
nevertheless it is true that thousands have gone out 
from among us. Not indeed as was said of some 
in other days, because they were not of us. Nay, 
nay, they have gone out from us, and are found in 
the sister denominations, but they are of us yet; 
one with us in doctrine, (I am a Methodist still 
they proudly say,) having the same spirit of the 
Master as of yore. 

They have gone out from among us, some because 
of dislike of our system of frequent pastoral changes, 
some for this reason, some for that, and we bid them 
all God-speed ; but pitying most of all those who went 
forth hoping in the change to improve their social 
standing, for have they not already learned to their 
sorrow that social culture and power depends very 
little upon one's church relationship ? 

The converts at Methodist altars, whose names 
are now on the church lists of sister denominations, 
are they not numbered almost by the hundreds even 
in our own city ? Not in sadness do we say it, but 
rejoicing rather that to Methodism has been granted 
the glorious privilege of not only helping itself, but 
of ministering unto others. 

The hour has passed. I can only pause to 
answer one ever recurring complaint that is made 



METHODIST. 21 5 

against our Church, to-wit : That it has not been 
as zealous for education as have other Churches. 
I meet the objection by begging you to remem- 
ber that its origin was at Oxford University ; its 
first ministers were men of culture and literary 
skill, but when converts multiplied it became neces- 
sary to send forth uneducated men to preach ; 
yet they were men who knew God's word and could 
mightily wield the sword of the Spirit. Methodism has 
never despised education. Dr. Stevens is authority 
for the statement that Princeton College, the fortress 
of Presbyterianism in America, received a Metho- 
distic baptism at its birth. Whitfield inspirited its 
founders, and Methodists in England gave it funds. 
Dartmouth College arose from the same impulse. 
It received its chief early funds from the British 
Methodists, and bears the name of one of their chief 
Calvinistic associates. Methodism is not, nor ever 
has been, a foe to education. Though its ministry 
has been more unlettered in the past than that of 
some other Churches, it was only because necessity 
was upon it ; the harvest was so great, and so ripe, 
that her young men were compelled to learn to use 
the gospel sickle in the field itself. But to-day more 
graduates of colleges are knocking at the Conference 
doors than can be received ; and to-day there are 



2l6 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

more colleges and seminaries in the United States 
under the control of Methodism than those of any 
other Church ; and more young men and young 
women are graduated every year from Methodist 
institutions of learning -than from those of any other 
Protestant denomination. 

Remembering these facts, and that our religious peri- 
odical press vastly exceeds in the extent of its circu- 
lation that of other creeds, we may safely believe that 
Methodism aims to develop the intellects as well as 
the emotions of its adherents, and is the patron of 
the highest learning. But, my brethren, Methodism, 
however glorious, has been its success, however well 
adapted to the wants of the world have been its 
methods, is not the whole of the household of faith. 
We have simply done our work in our way. Other 
Churches have done their work in their way. To God 
be all the glory. Every Church will go on in its own 
way, winning souls for the Master. Let us as Meth- 
odists thus do. 

We have no time for controversy. If others challenge 
the validity of our ministry, we answer them not, but 
joyfully say to the two millions of souls throughout 
the globe brought to Christ through our ministry, 
as St. Paul said to the Corinthians : " If I am not an 
apostle unto others, doubtless I am an apostle unto 



METHODIST. 2\J 

you, for the seal of my apostleship are ye in the 
Lord." 

If they say our system of itinerancy is a grievous 
burden upon the minister with its frequent changes ; 
it requires too great a sacrifice ; it necessitates too 
short pastorates for the highest efficiency of the office 
of an under-shepherd, and it is not adapted to the 
present wants of the Church and society, we answer : 
The ministry was instituted that men might be servants 
of the Church ; no sacrifice is too great that by it 
souls may be won ; while by our itinerancy the con- 
gregations are so served that none are ever without a 
pastor, nor is ever a pastor without a church ; and 
finally, the system of Methodism is elastic enough so 
that if experience shall demonstrate that a longer 
term would be better, the change will be made in time 
to meet the needs of the age. 

My brother, rejoice most of all not that you are 
a Methodist, but that you are a Christian. Let your 
loyalty and devotion to God, the Father, Son, 
and Spirit, be supreme over any affection for the 
Church in which you have a home ; and thank God 
most of all, that in order to attain to the highest 
excellency, whether as a Roman Catholic, Protest- 
ant Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congrega- 
tionalism Lutheran, Universalist or Methodist, you 



21 8 WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. 

must " Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with 
all thy strength ; and thy neighbor as thyself." 

" Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, 
the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and 
ever. Amen." 



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